Emory Dance Company Spring Concert 2016 "undertow": Choreographer Spotlight

After a successful opening night, read below about a few of our choreographers and their choreographic process!

Eliza Krakower

Junior, Dance & Movement Studies/ Human Health Double Major

I began this piece with the simple intention of making a work that was pleasing to the eye. It would be dynamic, detailed, and highly athletic. My choreographic process called upon the heightened creativity of my dancers, asking them to explore movement connected to verbal phrases such as popping bubbles or crawling through tubes. With no inner narrative guiding the structure of my piece I leave it up to the audience to draw their own connections and find meaning, or take the work at face value. In a dance about the movement and the architecture that four moving bodies can create I charge my dancers to find the rumble within their bodies that drives all impulses and ideas, and the rhythm beneath their skin that’s biting to escape.   

Jessica Bertram

Junior, Dance & Movement Studies/ Anthropology & Human Biology Double Major

I was initially interested in creating a movement vocabulary that was full of energy, power, and strength. I wanted my dancers to embody a percussive rhythm even without the music score being set. From the beginning, I instructed my dancers to "feel" one another and to stay connected and never leave each other behind. This movement concept and quality transcended into a piece about the agency of the group and the individual. I was captivated by my dancers individuality since their audition process and even though they often dance as "one", it was very important to me that the audience see the dancer's individual story. 

The music score was selected from composer Steve Reich's Early Works, as it combines looped text from the civil rights movement and cuban missile crisis. These historical elements are not only a reflection of the past, but an analysis of why these events are relative and reoccurring today. Almost as to say, why are we still fighting these battles?

The concept of  this piece became layered in themes of politics and spirituality, as my intentions shifted to create a work that dealt with the human struggle. Through exhaustion and physical difficulty, I wanted to portray the fight and commitment towards a common goal. This piece, titled "For Ev'ry Mountain" is touching on taking action and actively overcoming life's obstacles.