Contemporary Dance Ensemble

Contemporary Dance Ensemble

Sarah Liebowitz

A&E Editor

svl1010@plymouth.edu

On Dec. 4 and 5, members of PSU’s Contemporary Dance Ensemble (CDE) will perform original choreography by faculty and students.

The dance pieces are of varying genres and styles of dance. Students submitted choreography at Open Body Night, about five weeks into the semester. Dance faculty selected three pieces out of 11 submissions.

Dancers auditioned the first week of the semester. Since then, they have met multiple times every week to practice their pieces.

One of the pieces featured is “Going Places”; a site-specific piece choreographed by faculty member Lenore Sousa. The rehearsal process has been unconventional. “Instead of me creating movement and putting it on them, the students have been working on creating movement through specific assignments,” said Sousa.

“At times this has been great fun. We worked one warm day out on the steps of Mary Lyon. Other days [it’s] very challenging, finding time to work in the lobby of the theatre area when we wouldn't disrupt what was going on.”

Amanda Whitworth, Director of Dance, said site-specific dance is also challenging for the audience. “It brings the action very close to them, and often crosses spatial boundaries.”

Lenore Sousa thinks dance is important for expression. “One of the first things that babies learn to do is express their emotions through movement,” she said. “As we continue to grow and develop, so does our movement expression.”

The three student choreographers are junior Lauren LaBreck, junior Kelsie Steil, and sophomore Rebecca Mansfield.

LaBreck’s piece is to the songs “Tom Tom Swing Combo” by Hillary Thaddeus and “Sing Sing Sing” by Benny Goodman. The style is swing/ jazz/historically inspired.

Her piece celebrates high-energy movement. It had her dig into the dance history surrounding swing and the Charleston. “I wanted to make something that made people smile and yet admire the talented dancers we have at PSU,” she said.

Steil’s piece is to the song “Afterlife" by Arcade Fire. The style is modern and/or contemporary, with bursts of ballet. She describes it as "a groovy interpretation of the acceptance of death and a celebration of life."

“When I thought about this piece a while back, I did not know the semester I would choose to choreograph would involve so much loss within this community,” she said. “If we celebrate the lives of our loved ones, we can begin to grasp and understand this theme on the acceptance of death. It is almost like a healing dance.”

Mansfield describes her piece as physical theatre with modern influences. The music is from the film "The Conversation" composed by Academy Award Winner David Shire.

Mansfield had the opportunity to be in a concert with Shire this summer. “I heard the music and was instantly entranced at how beautifully haunting it was.”

Her dance focuses on a married couple in the 1950's. “We all have an image of our minds of the classic ‘Picture Perfect’ American household in the 1950's,” she said. “I wanted to focus on what was happening behind closed doors.”

This is Mansfield’s second semester choreographing for CDE. “Having someone understand and connect with the movement I have created is a feeling like no other. Every time I watch one of my dances being performed I feel like a mother giving birth,” she said.

“It is a long and sometimes hard process, but the end result is so beautiful and is a little piece of you that you have created.”

CDE will show on Dec. 4 and 5 in the Hanaway Theatre in PSU’s Silver Center for the Arts. Call 603-535-2787 or visit https://www.plymouth.edu/ silver-center for tickets.