Annual
Fall Faculty Dance Concert, Nov. 17-19
This year’s Faculty Dance Concert,
with performances Thursday through Saturday, Nov. 17 to 19,
at 8 p.m. in Theatre 14, Mendenhall Center, features choreographic
premieres created by dance faculty Chris Aiken,
Rodger Blum and Five College Lecturer in African
Dance Marilyn Sylla.
 For this year's event, the Smith
dance and Five College dance departments present
Merce Cunningham’s
renowned EVENTS. This project is especially timely as it
will coincide with the Cunningham company’s final tour and
performances.
Merce Cunningham was one of
the great innovators of 20th century art and dance, known
especially for his wide-ranging, innovative collaborations
with leading composers and visual artists. EVENTS will
include original collaborations with lighting and costume
designers and sound and media artists, including, from Smith:
Eitan Mendelowitz, computer science; Greg Brown, music; and
Emily Dunn, theatre.
The production of EVENTS is
supported by a prestigious American Masterpieces grant from
the National Endowment for the Arts.
The use of improvisation
in concert dance was an aesthetic formulated by Cunningham
(and others) that still strongly influences artists such
as Aiken. Cunningham realized that it is very easy to become
a prisoner of one’s
habits and of what one knows. As such, he developed methods
that challenged him to move into unknown territories. His
use of chance procedures offered him new creative avenues
because of the surprising interactions that would occur
when he took known elements and combined them in unknown
ways.
“This way of working is
what makes Chris Aiken such an important and exciting hire
for Smith and the Five College dance department,” states
Rodger Blum, chair of the Department
of Dance.
Contrasting his work
with that of Cunningham, Aiken says, “Cunningham allows
the dancers to choose when or where to initiate certain set
choreographies but the movement is set. My work allows the
dancers to have agency over their movement choices.” Aiken
is focused on the creation of processes that are both designed
to explore the possibilities of the human body and to create
a relationship to choice-making and habit.
Aiken’s piece
for the concert will present a directed improvisational
dance with nine dancers. While many of the elements of the
dance, such as music, lighting and costumes, will be decided
upon ahead of time, the
actual movements will be improvised in the moment based upon “scores” and
directions that have been internalized by the dancers throughout
the rehearsal process; the dancers will be composing in real
time.
Other pieces on the concert
program performed include “Sonnet for
the Broken-hearted,” an ensemble work choreographed by Blum
that explores a range of relationships,
from light-hearted and silly to confused and dark.
Marilyn
and Sekou Sylla’s “Carnival” dance is based on African, Brazilian
and Caribbean music and dance and is inspired by annual Carnival
events celebrated in many parts of the world, including
the United States, Africa, Brazil and the Caribbean.
The Fall Faculty Dance Concert
is always an exhilarating and sold out evening of contemporary
dance; advance ticket purchase is recommended. Tickets are $9,
general admission, $5 for students and seniors. To order,
call 413-585-ARTS (2787) or email boxoffice@smith.edu. |
