Local dance troupe promotes elegance

Dressed in '80s attire, members of the Windfall Dance Company opened their show "Gasping for Breath" with a workout video parody of modern dance over the weekend.\nThe show ran Friday and Saturday night in the Rose Firebay Theater of the John Waldron Arts Center, featuring dancers from the Windfall Dance Company, the Windfall Youth Ensemble and Parallel Differences, a high school-aged group of dancers directed by graduate student Shauna Steele.\n"This isn't really a themed show. It's just a collection of pieces the company has worked together to present," said company member Susannah Karls, who directed the production and marketing of the concert. "The title doesn't necessarily tie the whole show together, although it has some to do with the first piece." \nAll the dancers meet as a group to decide the titles for their shows.\nDancer and grad student Carol Subino said one of the other company members just showed up at rehearsal one day with a list of titles, and the company voted on them.\n"We just wanted one that sounded interesting and would get people to come," she said.\nSubino choreographed a piece in the show, "Calibrating Harmony," which is a character study of three couples and the problems they face in a relationship.\n"We actually faced an interesting problem in Windfall because all of the company members are female," Subino said. "All the dancers are dressed as both a man and woman, so it's really interesting."\nThe dancers wore pink dresses with blazers and ties to illustrate the ambiguity of gender roles in modern society.\n"I wanted to show that there's really no such thing as a 'normal' relationship," Subino said. "I just got married, so I'm learning to live with the negotiations that have to be made in a relationship."\nThe concert contained a true variety of motion, music and movers. \n"Everyone in Windfall is so diverse," Subino said. "There are all sorts of people coming and going through the company, and each brings something new along with them."\nThe youth dancers also presented several pieces in the concert. For many of them, performing is still a new experience, as no previous dance training is required to join the company. Esther Widlanski, a 16-year-old member of Parallel Differences, said she enjoys dancing, but most of all she likes to watch the older dancers and learn from them.\n"I had dance experience coming into Windfall," she said. "And a lot of the other girls really hadn't. But even so, we've all improved so much over just the past year or so. It's really amazing to see."\nWindfall will be showcasing its dancers again in the spring at its annual spring show at 8 p.m. April 9, 16 and 17 at the John Waldron Arts Center. This year's show is titled "Elements."\n-- Contact staff writer Stacey Laskin at slaskin@indiana.edu.