Unlike ballet or tap dancing, where the shoes aid movement, modern dance is usually performed barefoot on stage and challenges many accepted norms of traditional dance. Modern dance as performed by the NCSU Dance Company is not an exercise in technique or abstractions, but is primarily content-driven.
This Thursday and Friday night, the N.C. State Dance Program Fall Concert will be presented at 8 p.m. in Stewart Theatre. The concert consists of work by the NCSU Dance Company, The Panoramic Dance Project and independent student chorography.
Dance Program Director Robin Harris describes the work of the company and her work in particular as “dance documentary.” She said dance documentary is dance “inspired by real events and situations with a poetic license to transform that reality into something new, while still respecting the source material.”
Harris said a good example of the idea of “dance documentary” is the movement studies project that will be presented in the concert. The movement studies project – entitled “Museum” — is based off of a composition/technique class which created multiple short pieces inspired by photographs in the Gregg Museum of Art and Design in Talley Student Center.
Other pieces include “Cashmere Bouquet Face Powder” and “Dishwashing,” performed by Harris and directly inspired by a work by writer James Agee.
Ashley Walls, a senior in mathematics and philosophy, is presenting two original works – “Rather One Becomes a Woman,” inspired by the lives of three artistic women and “Three Nurses,” which dramatizes the experiences of nurses.
Kaitlan Acree, a junior in history, will present two original works – “Scene 3, Takes 1‐5,” inspired by film techniques and “A Wonderful Accomplishment,” inspired by her great-grandmother.
The Panoramic Dance Project is a campus dance group which “is committed to performing a variety of dance styles and exposing the students to dance and cultures from around the world,” according to Dance Program Assistant Director Autumn Mist Belk.
Students involved in the project study many genres including jazz, hip hop, traditional African dance, traditional Indian dance, Native American tribal dances, hula and flamenco.
Belk said many of the aforementioned styles will be featured in a work by choreographer Cara Hagan entitled “Common Threads,” which Belk said “has a very southern feel, with themes surrounding family and the strength of women.” Belk also said that the students “began by writing letters to influential women in their lives, using those words as inspiration for movement and, literally, as spoken words in the piece.”
Alexis Hatjioannou, a senior in civil engineering, will present independent work in the concert, which she developed while taking Harris’ composition course DAN 272. This will be the first time her original work — a solo entitled “The Autobiography” — has ever been performed for an audience. Hatjioannou said a friend inspired the piece.
“My inspiration comes mostly from having a friend who was in a bad relationship,” Hatjioannou said. She added that “since I was the one on the outside of their relationship, I thought for my piece, ‘what would it be like if I was in her shoes?’ which gave me the source material I needed.”
Since N.C. State does not offer a dance major or minor, the students involved in the program have to balance rigorous academics with equally rigorous artistic pursuits.
Kimberly Fisher, a junior in business administration, said the balance is “not difficult to manage.” She added “the dance pieces have substance, so it is easy to come from everyday life and to jump into an art form with a story and meaning.”
For students who have not experienced the barefoot and intellectually rigorous dances the N.C. State Dance Program perform, Harris has a few words of advice: “Audience members unaccustomed to modern dance are sometimes confused, but they shouldn’t worry about ‘getting’ a linear narrative. Try to feel and experience the performance and let their own experiences and emotions be a frame of reference to draw their own conclusions.”
