Spring Dance Concert features works by students and professional choreographers

Four Randolph College seniors spent much of their time this semester perfecting the spins, leaps and music selections for dances they have choreographed for the 2014 Spring Dance Concert.

Unlike the fall showcase, which features solely student work, the Spring Dance Concert is an opportunity for graduating seniors to show their choreography next to dances created by professionals.

“We have been preparing for this concert since the beginning of the fall semester,” said Lauren Boegert ’14. “It is both terrifying and exciting because our choreography goes up against professional work.”

This concert features pieces choreographed by professional choreographers such as Takehiro Ueyama, the director of Take Dance; Lori Belilove, director of the Isadora Dance Company; Walter Kennedy; and Randolph dance faculty in addition to the works choreographed by seniors majoring in dance.

Boergert created her piece, titled “Uninhibited,” to convey a sense of openness, vulnerability, and taking chances. “I struggle with openness and wanted to choreograph a piece about something difficult,” she said. “I thought it would be a good challenge.”

Beginning dancing when she was three, Boergert always favored ballet and did not have experience with modern dance. Her focus changed as she gained experience with modern dance at Randolph. “I like to think of myself as a modern dancer after my four years here. I don’t hide behind my technique as much,” said Boergert.

Senior dance major Chloe Tong said that she is most proud of being able to look at her choreography for the Spring Dance Concert and say, “I made that.” Her dance for the Spring Concert, “Everything Happens for a Reason”, focuses on how families act as one working unit.

Samantha Suzuki ’14, another senior earning her BFA in dance, choreographed the dance “M.A.D” for the Spring Dance Concert.

Suzuki’s piece is inspired by the poem “Fire and Ice” by Robert Frost. “I am most proud of the fact I was able to overcome my fears of choreography for male dancers,” she said. “In years past I have shied away from choreographing for male dancers because it felt very different and unnatural for me. The fact my first section movement looks strong and masculine and still has my aesthetic vibe to it makes me very proud.”

Angelina Carilli ’14 choreographed the dance “An Affected Mind” for the concert. The dance depicts the way drugs affect people’s minds.

The Spring Dance Concert will feature a total of 12 dances, individually crafted by 11 different choreographers.

The Spring Dance Concert will be held at 8 p.m. Thursday–Friday in Smith Hall Theater. General admission is $8, student admission is $4 and children 12 and under can attend for free.

Fall dance concert highlights student choreography

Student talents will take center stage this weekend as the Randolph Dance program presents its annual Fall Showcase.

The seven-piece performance is choreographed and organized completely by students. Seniors Lauren Boergert and Chloe Tong led the organization for this concert, but each student in the dance program has contributed in various ways.

2013 Fall Dance Showcase

8 p.m. Nov. 1 & Nov. 2

Smith Hall Theatre

Tickets: $5 general admission, $2 for students

Amanda Fischer ’15 is quite excited about the diversity of the pieces in the showcase. “Some years it is all one style, but this year it is all different; ballet, modern, hip hop, and pedestrian style,” she said. “Even though they are all different styles, it melds into one show quite nicely.”

Fischer is one of six student choreographers who have crafted pieces for the showcase. Titled “Perspectives,” it is a modern style dance about how people can see the same thing and still have different views of what it is, means, or represents. In addition to her own piece, she will dance in three others, including a ballet solo choreographed by Lindsay Brents ’16.

Having been trained in ballet for most of her pre-college career, Fischer found Brents’ choreography about a dancer who hates ballet and wants to do hip-hop quite enjoyable. “It should be entertaining,” she said.

In addition to organizing the show, Tong and Boergert also choreographed for it. They created one piece together, and Tong created another one of her own that conveys the ability to be feminine and strong simultaneously.

Tong and Fischer both think that this showcase in particular will be especially enjoyable for audiences. “The music is also very upbeat and pop-like, so students will be able to relate to it,” said Tong.

Angie Carilli ’14 and Samantha Suzuki ’14 round out the list of six student choreographers whose works can be seen this Friday and Saturday nights in Smith Hall Theatre. The showcase will start at 8 p.m. Tickets are $5 for adult general admission and $2 for students.

Randolph composer-in-residence recognized in national newspaper

Randolph's Hiawatha Johnson was recently featured in a New York Times movie review on Judd Ehrlich's documentary, "Magic Camp." The review, published June 27, gives high praise to the movie, which it calls a "spry and revealing examination of Tannen's Magic Camp, an annual week-long July assembly of aspiring illusionists at Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania."

Johnson, a composer-in-residence for Randolph also serves as an instructor for the program.

To read the review, please see:
http://movies.nytimes.com/2013/06/28/movies/tannens-magic-camp-is-the-subject-of-a-new-documentary.html?emc=eta1&_r=0

Spring Dance Concert to feature student and visiting artist choreography

The beauty of sign language will find a place on the stage this week during Randolph College’s annual Spring Dance Concert.

Kathryn Old ’13 choreographed “Natural Communication” with movements inspired by American Sign Language, which she began learning when she babysat a deaf child for a family she knows.  “I wanted to show the importance of dance as expression and also the beauty of being hearing impaired and using sign language,” said Old.

Photo by Andrew Wilds

This is one of several dance pieces that students will showcase in the concert at 8 p.m. on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Students have been choreographing their own dances and mastering the work of visiting dance artists for more than a year in preparation for this concert.

Old is also quite excited to be performing in a piece by Takehiro “Take” Ueyama, the director of Take Dance in New York City who has been a visiting artist at Randolph for several years. The dance is Japanese inspired and technically quite difficult. “Take’s choreography is beautiful because it looks so effortless, but they are extremely challenging to dance,” Old said.

Working with the visiting artists such as Take is a very special component of the Randolph College dance program. It allows students exposure to dancers and choreographers who are currently working in the dance industry. Not only are they able to build close relationships with the visiting artists, but it is also a gateway to opportunities with other dance companies.

Martin Wiley will perform a solo dance choreographed by Kile
Hotchkiss in the Spring Dance Concert. Photo by Andrew Wilds.

Another senior choreographer highlighted in this dance concert is Martin Wiley ’13. Wiley has choreographed and casted a dance inspired by the elements earth, wind, fire, and water. “I enjoy choreography. The idea that I could create something and it would be appreciated was really fascinating to me,” said Wiley, “It is one of the things that has inspired me to go deeper in the field of dance.”

In addition to his own choreography, Wiley will perform in five other dances at the concert. Most notable is a solo piece choreographed by Kile Hotchkiss. Representing the struggles that one faces when coming in and out of a relationship, the dance is quite powerful. “It is set to a piano ballad. The music is simple, but it is offset by very dynamic movement,” said Wiley. “I think it will really affect some people in the audience.”

Wiley and Old each bring a different perspective and experience to dance. Wiley did not discover his passion for dance until he was at Randolph, when another student saw him dance at a party and invited him to perform in a piece she was choreographing. Old, however, has danced for most of her life and attended the Governor’s School for the Arts in Norfolk, Va., for high school, She had a very intensive pre-college career that involved dancing most days from lunchtime until late at night. Coming to Randolph allowed her to continue working hard to develop her talent while giving her a breath of fresh air. “The Dance Program here has felt like family,” she said. “It is very uplifting and encouraging.”

The Spring Dance Concert will start Thursday, April 4th and run through Saturday, April 6th. All performances begin at 8:00pm and are held in Smith Hall Theatre. Admission is $8 for general admission, $4 for students, and free for children under 12. Tickets can be purchased at http://www.lynchburgtickets.com/springdance.

Exhibition highlights art from Arthur B. Davies, dance from Isadora Duncan

A new exhibition at the Maier Museum of Art at Randolph College combines never-before-exhibited artwork with internationally-renowned dance.

Lori Belilove, artistic director of the Isadora Duncan Dance Company,
explains the dance-centered artwork of Arthur B. Davies.

On Friday, the Maier will open Modern Movement: Arthur Bowen Davies Figurative Works on Paper from the Randolph College and Mac Cosgrove-Davies Collections. The Isadora Duncan Dance Company will be on hand to explain and demonstrate the dance poses depicted in many of Davies’ works.

“The art would be great alone, but introducing the dance aspect makes it more meaningful,” said Martha Johnson, director of the Maier Museum of Art at Randolph College. “This is interdisciplinary programming in action. That is always at the core of the liberal arts experience.”

Modern Movement

Exhibition Opening
When: Friday, Jan. 18, 6–8 p.m.
Where: Maier Museum of Art at Randolph College
Featuring art and dance interpretation by the Isadora Duncan Dance Company.
Free and open to the public

The Art of Isadora

Lecture and dance performance by the Isadora Duncan Dance Company
When: Saturday, Jan. 19, 7:30 p.m.
Where: Smith Hall Theatre
Tickets: $5 (free for students)

Davies was an American who is best known for his role in The Armory Show, an avant-garde exhibition that broke ground for modern art in America in 1913. Davies was the primary curator of the show, officially titled  the International Exhibition of Modern Art, and organized it with other American artists who wanted to see something new in American art.

“The academic training for artists had just gotten to be very predictable, so they were trying to breathe new life into the art scene in this country,” Johnson said. “People were tired of the tried and true, and they were looking for something new, something that was unique and creative, and about ideas.”

The exhibition shocked and scandalized many viewers because of the non-traditional nature of the art, which included cubist, surrealist, styles. But it also had its intended effect, ushering in a period of modernism in American art.

At the same time, Isadora Duncan was working to restore ballet from mere entertainment to an art form focused on beauty and natural movement. Occasionally, Davies drew inspiration from Duncan, attending her performances and sketching the dancers. Dancers were the subject of many of his works.

Many of Davies’ figure drawings featuring dancers were purchased by an art collector named Lillie P. Bliss. Her family donated much of her artwork to the College in 1949 after her death, making the College the custodian of one of the largest Davies collections in the country.

For decades, the Davies pieces from that gift remained in the College’s archives. Ten years ago, several pieces underwent conservation treatments to preserve them and allow them to be used in an exhibition. Several years later, the artist’s great-grandson Mac Cosgrove-Davies and Maier staff members began planning an exhibition to mark the centennial of the Armory Show.

The exhibition includes more than 70 works by Davies from the College’s collection and from Cosgrove-Davies’ private collection.

In addition to providing demonstrations at Friday’s exhibition opening, the Isadora Duncan Dance Company will present a concert in Smith Hall Theatre on Saturday. During the week, the dance company members are participating in a residency to teach techniques to Randolph dance students.

Alumna will dance in the Olympics opening ceremony

When Mary-Elizabeth Carter White ’90 learned that she could audition to dance in the 2012 Olympics opening ceremony, she hesitated. Should she really try out? Most of the other dancers would be many years younger than her. The rehearsal schedule would be demanding.

But then she recalled the words of Doug Hamby, a dancer and choreographer who visited Randolph when she was a student. When Hamby did not cast White for a dance he choreographed for an annual show, he gave her one piece of advice: “Be bold.”

Watch the Opening Ceremony

Friday, July 27, 9 p.m. London

NBC broadcast in the U.S. at 7 p.m. Eastern

Alumna Mary-Elizabeth Carter White ’90 will be in a group that starts performing about 57 minutes into the program.

“Now, I often think to myself, ‘Be bold,’ before I throw myself into new adventures,” White said. “His two little words made a huge impact on me.’

With that inspiration, she signed up to try out. After two exhausting auditions, she was offered a role, and she will be one of the thousands of performers on stage Friday night.

White, who now lives in England, majored in economics, but she also studied dance under Pam Risenhoover, who still leads the dance program today, and the visiting artists Risenhoover brought in. While she was in England for Randolph’s signature study abroad program in Reading, England, she met her husband.

“I don’t think I realized how lucky I was with R-MWC dance,” White said. “The exposure to so many different styles and teachers helped me when I headed to London and started dance classes there.”

White said she has not danced professionally, but she is a “passionate amateur” whose career has centered on performing arts. She has worked at English National Opera, Warner Brothers, and now a theatre group in Putney, London.

Dance rehearsals for the opening ceremony began in April, White said. Her shortest rehearsal was five hours long. The longest rehearsal ran for 10 hours. While it was hard work, she got to meet many other skilled dancers who have prepared an impressive show. “This is a hugely talented bunch of people, and I am so proud to be a part of it,” she said. “I am a mere cog in the whole thing, but I am having a grand time doing what I love—dancing!”

Olympic Stadium in London

White doubts that anyone watching the opening ceremony on television would be able to pick her out of the crowd, but she says her group’s performance is not to be missed—although she is sworn to secrecy about what the performance actually includes. You’ll have to tune in for the surprise.

The opening ceremony will take place on Friday, July 27, at 9 p.m. London Time (4 p.m. Eastern), but NBC will broadcast a recording at 7 p.m. Eastern. White’s group is scheduled to dance starting 57 minutes into the ceremony.