EDC Spring 2014: A Few Words from our Choreographers (Part 5)

As we rapidly approach the Emory Dance Company Spring Concert, we have the opportunity to hear from more of our student choreographers about their works in progress. They will give us some insight to their choreographic process by detailing their challenges, triumphs, and aspirations for their pieces. 

Nathalie Angel, Senior

The inspiration for this piece I’m working on came after I had sprained my ankle badly and ended up on crutches for two weeks. In the weeks that followed I found myself on the phone for hours trying to reach the billing department at the hospital, the insurance company, the doctor’s office etc. It was frustrating being put on hold one call after the other and being subjected to listen to awful call waiting music, which really only made the wait worse. This piece is investigating these everyday, mundane situations where we are forced to wait. I initially also wanted to experiment with the concept of weight itself through using contact improvisation as a choreographic tool, so this may (or may not) be incorporated along the way.

 

Working with a small cast of four has been extremely rewarding in that we have really been able to have meaningful exchanges during rehearsal. My dancers are eager to learn and embody the movement, which I really appreciate! When movement isn’t working they are also great problem solvers and give a plethora of suggestions on what we can do instead. Each of my dancers has a unique movement style and I want to give them the opportunity to contribute to my piece. At our last rehearsal they each manipulated a phrase using different choreographic tools, which we will work on piecing together to create a duet and two solos. 

 

The greatest challenge in the development of my piece has been trying to figure out the message I want to convey and how to go about expressing that. I have many ideas and trying to narrow them down has been difficult. Additionally, since this piece will provide commentary on everyday situations, such as awkward elevator rides, I’m trying to find ways to balance pedestrian movement and theatrics. I have no background or previous experience in theater so it is path I’m hesitant to go down, however I do acknowledge that it may very well assist my piece.

 

The feedback sessions with other choreographers have been extremely helpful in providing possible future directions for this work. Moreover, living inside the piece, my dancers and I know where we are coming from and what we want to convey. At the same time we are not always the best at evaluating if our message is getting across. Being able to share my choreographic process with my peers and fellow choreographers has been extremely helpful in this regard and I am very grateful for their honest feedback and commentary.

It has been very interesting to witness how this piece has morphed, which is very different from what I had imagined it to be at the beginning of the semester. I'm excited to keep working on this with my dancers and to see the final product in April!

Thanks, Nathalie!

Don't miss the Emory Dance Company Spring Showcase.  Click here for more details.

For more information on the Emory Dance Program, please go to our website.

EDC Spring 2014: A Few Words from our Choreographers (Part 4)

As we rapidly approach the Emory Dance Company Showcase, we have the opportunity to hear from more of our student choreographers about their works in progress. They will give us some insight to their choreographic process by detailing their challenges, triumphs, and aspirations for their pieces. 

Kevin Huang, Senior

This choreographic project was originally inspired by the word ‘plunge’. I began by creating a core phrase based on imagery related to the word plunge, including the phrase ‘taking the plunge’, water imagery from ‘plunging into water’, and the suction mechanisms of toilet plungers. I then asked my dancers to manipulate the movement with different dynamic and spatial qualities to create additional material and to add structure to my piece.

As we create and manipulate movement, the piece is beginning to drift away from this original idea of plunging. Nevertheless, traces of this idea still run through the piece and perhaps only time will inform whether or not this project takes on a completely different image.

I have previously choreographed solo material, but have, until now, never set choreography on other dancers. Thus, my biggest challenge for this project was putting movement together in a way that made sense to the audience and gave the piece some kind of structure. Feedback from the other choreographers was especially helpful in this regard, as they were able to pinpoint specific things that enhanced and detracted from the feel of the work. Finding music has also been a challenge. Nevertheless, these challenges have made this process very rewarding and I am incredibly excited to keep developing this work with my amazing cast and alongside the other awesome choreographers!

Love,

Kevin

Thanks, Kevin!

Don't miss the Emory Dance Company Spring Showcase.  Click here for more details.

For more information on the Emory Dance Program, please go to our website.

EDC Spring 2014: A Few Words from our Choreographers (Part 3)

What makes spring so special for the Emory Dance Program is that the works featured in the Emory Dance Company spring showcase are created by the students of the Choreography II class.  As the semester progresses, we'll hear from each of our nine choreographers about their processes, challenges, triumphs, and aspirations for their pieces. 

Sarah Freeman, Junior

I've been coming up with possible themes and inspirations for this piece since I decided I wanted to choreograph for EDC last year, so there have been some pretty crazy ideas bouncing around in my head. (I did eventually abandon the Land Before Time direction, luckily.) What really intrigues me in this piece is the boundary of when an object or an idea is ready to discard: is it used up, is it boring, is it just too much to handle? Through movement, and with a lot of everyday props, I want to examine that tension between value and trash.

I chose dancers who I thought were creative and brave as well as technically skilled, because in this piece it’s important for them to make their own decisions about how long or in what manner to continue a phrase or gesture. Or do they just feel like walking offstage? What I love about dance is that almost anything possible is within the realm of possibility in this microcosm of a theater, and the most interesting choreography to me is the most surprising. Sometimes I worry we have a little too much fun in rehearsal, but I think it's just the joy of taking risks and being unafraid to try something completely off the wall that puts us in such a good mood. And some of my ideas are definitely ridiculous, which occasionally works, but more often means we just crack up and throw it away...hey, see what I did there?

My biggest challenge is definitely going to be honing down all of the scattered images and phrases I keep coming up with into a cohesive and clear, but also wacky and unpredictable piece of work. As a writer and English major I am constantly editing and condensing my writing, but it's so much harder to do in dance when there are other people embracing and jumping in to the insane directions you throw at them. This is an amazing opportunity for me as a student to have access to professional quality theater space, music arrangement, costume production, lighting and sound...The list of resources goes on forever and I want to take advantage of the chance to produce a multi-dimensional and challenging piece of artwork. I am enjoying every moment of this process, because I know that when the show is over, when we've used it up, there's no choice but to just let it go. And that's the best part of creating choreography to me!

Thanks, Sarah!

Don't miss the Emory Dance Company Spring Showcase.  Click here for more details.

For more information on the Emory Dance Program, please go to our website.

EDC Spring 2014: A Few Words from our Choreographers (Part 2)

What makes spring so special for the Emory Dance Program is that the works featured in the Emory Dance Company spring showcase are created by the students of the Choreography II class.  As the semester progresses, we'll hear from each of our nine choreographers about their processes, challenges, triumphs, and aspirations for their pieces. 

Luna Vorster, Senior

My choreographic process has been rather eclectic. I drew inspiration from Wikipedia articles, finding descriptions and verbs that interested me. I then used this text to create movement, sometimes trying to stay as literal as possible and other times working creatively so that the movements barely show their origin. The topics ranged from describing the coloration of birds to mathematical equations that map 2D into 3D. A common thread is that the articles all aimed at describing how things in the universe work. This has informed the ideas in the piece, but I am trying to allow the piece to evolve organically, rather than force it to fit these concepts.

I created a few core phrases based on these descriptions, and my dancers have been manipulating them and drawing new ideas from them. I have a cast of six enthusiastic dancers who are willing to try my wacky ideas and contribute many of their own. The piece has definitely evolved into a collaborative work, and my dancers have taken the movement and morphed it into a series of interesting duets and trios. I have also taken some of the material they have manipulated, and used their new ideas to create further phrases. This exploration of the material is exciting for me, and I am grateful to have such a creative group of individuals to work with.

I am also incredibly lucky to be collaborating with my brother, Jean-Luc, who is creating the musical score for this work. He’s taken the same Wikipedia articles and is turning those ideas into a musical piece that will accompany my choreography.

My greatest challenge in this piece is to take these phrases and images that my dancers and I have created and assemble them into a cohesive work. We are currently playing with transition material and ordering the piece a hundred different ways. The feedback sessions are key to working through these challenges. George Staib (the course instructor) and the other choreographers all notice something different about the piece, and their comments help me understand what is working and what parts may need further attention. I’ve noticed that while developing the piece, I get so invested in particular aspects that I neglect to see other things. The feedback sessions help me see my piece through the eyes of others and point out the parts that I overlook.

I love working collaboratively so I’m excited to have a cast and group of fellow choreographers who are all willing to provide input and share their ideas. I’m excited to see how all these ideas come together in the final production.

Thanks, Luna!

Don't miss the Emory Dance Company Spring Showcase.  Click here for more details.

For more information on the Emory Dance Program, please go to our website.

EDC Spring 2014: A Few Words from our Choreographers (Part 1)

What makes spring so special for the Emory Dance Program is that the works featured in the Emory Dance Company spring showcase are created by the students of the Choreography II class.  As the semester progresses, we'll hear from each of our nine choreographers about their processes, challenges, triumphs, and aspirations for their pieces.  

Natalie Eggert, Junior

I was hesitant to take on my first choreographic project. Creating an entire piece intimidated me; maybe it still does. But with every rehearsal, I gain more confidence in my choreography, my ideas, and the direction of the piece. Since this is my first choreographic project, I came into it with an open mind. I have discovered that letting the piece develop organically is much better than trying to fit it into certain expectations. I believe my most successful rehearsals have been the ones in which I go on a tangent unrelated to what I had planned for the day. I have decided not to prescribe how the piece should look; I want it to decide for itself. One of my peers referred to my choreography as “a series of pleasant surprises.” Believe me, no one is more surprised than I am when I watch the movement I created transform into something unexpected.

I was also lucky enough to snag the best cast. I knew from the beginning that I wanted to make a duet. I was thrilled when Kim and Sarah signed up for my piece! The chemistry between these two is so tangible,they are a really playful duo and I always look forward to rehearsing with them. I believe that if they enjoy the dance, the audience will, too. I hope that the piece keeps the audience on their toes. I like that moments take the viewer by surprise and then in a flash are gone.

I was not prepared to feel so personally attached to this work. Showing my choreography to other people has been my biggest challenge thus far. I remember one day before modern class, I saw Kim and Sarah running through my phrase material. Most choreographers would be grateful to see their dancers practicing but I turned bright red. I think it was that feeling little kids get when they see their parents kiss in public. It’s like “stop doing that you’re embarrassing me!” Emily Hammond, a senior at Emory who choreographed for EDC last year caught onto my reaction and reassured me that choreographing is a vulnerable experience for everyone. However, as time goes on I feel more comfortable showing my work in progress to others, especially the other choreographers. I now look forward to the showings because their feedback always gives me a new perspective. Watching my piece develop has been really exciting and I can’t wait to see the final product in April.

 Thanks, Natalie!

Don't miss the Emory Dance Company Spring Showcase.  Click here for more details.

For more information on the Emory Dance Program, please go to our website.

Working With Emily Johnson: The Performer's Perspective

For two weeks, the Emory Dance Program had the privilege of hosting Emily Johnson, choreographer and director of Catalyst Dances. Johnson is known for her sense based work, and her perspective that "our bodies as EVERYTHING: our bodies are culture, history, present and future, all at once." Johnson worked with and created a piece for students in the Emory Dance Company, including college junior and dance major, Natalie Eggert. Eggert has taken some time to discuss Johnson's rehearsal process and what it was like to work with such a unique choreographer.

http://catalystdance.com/

How was Johnson's rehearsal process similar and/or different to that of other choreographers you've worked with?

Emily Johnson's process differed because she did not teach her own choreography to us for the rehearsal, instead she guided us through improvisation to find the movement for this piece. Our improvisations were motivated by the stories we shared with each other on the first day of rehearsal about what makes us happy and what we have to give. The dance was similar to other choreographers I've worked with in the past in that she tailored the dance specifically for the dancers in the piece. 

What are the pros and cons of residencies in comparison to the usual rehearsal process of the Emory Dance Company? 

Pros--we got very close as a cast very quickly! Cons--It's difficult to go from rehearsing with Emily to without her because we won't have her guidance on the intention behind the movement. 

What are the most valuable things you took away from working with Johnson?

Working with Emily was an inspiring experience. Her movement is genuine and her personality is even more genuine. She was very open with our cast regarding her thought process and the life experiences that have guided her work, which helped us sink into the piece and personify her message. I feel more personally tied to this work than any other piece I've done with Emory Dance Company. Coming out of the residency, I feel motivated to continue refining the work so that we can make Emily proud when we perform in November. The dance still has a long way to go.

Thanks, Natalie!



For information on the Emory Dance Program, please go to our website or check out our Facebook page.

An Afternoon with Philip Glass

Last week, Emory University had the pleasure of hosting Philip Glass, world renowned composer and musical genius.  Glass has created several operas, concertos, and symphonies, and is considered one of the most influential composers of the 20th century.  Glass is most well-known for his “minimalist” style and use of repetition in his works.

http://www.philipglass.com/bio.php

The Emory Dance Program was especially excited to have the privilege of spending the afternoon with Glass to discuss his work and his past collaborations with groundbreaking choreographers, including Lucinda Childs, Yvonne Rainer, and Twyla Tharp.  Students of the Choreography I and Introduction to Dance classes had the opportunity to ask Glass about his work and his creative process.

Some highlights of the conversation were when Glass spoke of ways in which the composition of music and dance are connected.  A student asked how he started a new work, to which he responded, “Just go!”  Glass talked about how we are always going to have to answer the question of what comes next, and we’re always going to have to work through the kinks that come with composition.  

Glass also commented that we all have natural tendencies that we always seem to find our way back to.  He mentioned that sometimes when we are creating a new work it feels like we're making something we've already done and the real challenge is to go against what we are comfortable with.  Just like music composition, in choreography we all have movement affinities that we are naturally drawn to.  We share the challenge of taking what comes easily to us and manipulating it into something new that surprises ourselves.

Listening to Glass' personal experiences and his journey to where he is now left all who were present inspired and so very grateful to have had such a unique opportunity. 

For information on the Emory Dance Program, please go to our website or check out our Facebook page.