This weekend, a number of dance companies will appear in the Family Weekend Dance Concert, an annual performance showcasing a wide selection of dances with influences ranging from a cappella music to political issues in West Africa to urban waltzes. The show, a sampling of faculty-directed pieces assembled by Senior Lecturer in Theatre, Speech and Dance Julie Strandberg, will run Friday through Sunday in Ashamu Dance Studio.
The concert is an upbeat show with a variety of dance styles set to an eclectic mix of music, including live fiddle, Malian drumming and music from the tragicomic German film "Good Bye Lenin!".
The show opens with the dramatic, energetic number "Parson's Etude," a repertory study by David Parsons, a contemporary dance choreographer. The piece creates a mysterious atmosphere through the interplay of light and shadow on the dancers' moving bodies as they contrast modern, sharp movements with flowing ballet motions on the softly illuminated stage. The dancers, members of the Dance Extension Company, toss and turn their bodies in motions suggestive of fitful sleep, hitting their movements sharply and exactly before collapsing dramatically as the mysterious glow suddenly vanishes.
The Dance Extension Company also performs "Short Stories," a piece by guest choreographer Kanji Segawa that captures a series of human narratives ranging from solitude to playful familial unity. The dancers move together in exaggerated gestures that suggest the motions of mimes while also displaying more graceful movements, all set to music from the film "Good Bye Lenin!".
The longest and most dynamic number in the program is performed by New Works/World Traditions, a company seeking to fuse political issues with art. Choreographer Michelle Bach-Coulibaly, senior lecturer in theatre, speech and dance, created "Eating My Ethics: Bloodline Excerpts," based on the company's tour in West Africa last summer.
The piece, a "rough draft" of excerpts from a larger work performed by the company this summer in Mali, represents a "new direction that the piece (in its entirety) is going in," Bach-Coulibaly said. "This gave us a chance to pull it apart."
The dancers, wearing jeans, white chemises and black vests, shuffle onto the stage in a group as a spoken word performer soliloquizes from atop a piano to the notes of a Chopin waltz played by Zak Stone '09. The dancers' natural, flowing movements, set to the sounds of a fiddle played by Ida Specker '09, meld into rhythmic steps reminiscent of an African dance. As a Malian drum group begins to beat their instruments, the dancers undulate rhythmically in concentric circles, stepping in rhythm with the drums - a dramatic, evocative conclusion to the concert.
The show also features a captivating exploration of formal and casual partnering in "Urban Waltz," choreographed by Meida McNeal, a postdoctoral fellow in theatre, speech and dance. Wearing flowing white skirts, the dancers combine an eclectic mix of styles from ballet to formal ballroom dancing to sensual tango. McNeal said she was interested in exploring a waltz's rhythm of threes in her piece, which showcases material from her larger work entitled "Give Thanks."
Jamie Jewett, adjunct lecturer in theatre, speech and dance, choreographed the theatrical number "Falling Up," which, he said, "blurs the lines between dancers and singers." The piece features live a cappella music and rhythmic clapping as the dancers provide their own beats through song and audible breathing.
"There is obviously a real richness at Brown, and I wanted to take advantage of that," Jewett said of the piece, which he created for his modern dance students.
Performances are tonight and tomorrow at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m.
