IU Contemporary Dance Theatre students tapped, twirled and glided across the stage of Ruth N. Halls Theatre on Friday night as part of the “Faculty Dance: Body to Body” concert. The two-hour production showcased choreography from five IU faculty members and two guest artists.
“Faculty Dance: Body to Body” was directed by Selene Carter, an associate professor at IU specializing in dance improvisation and history. Each piece was created independently by choreographers specifically for this concert, apart from the two pieces choreographed by guest artists Ishmael Koney and Maxine Montilus, who had about a 10-day residency where they taught the students their piece and vision. After their residency, Alexis Beverly, a former IU contemporary dance student, ran the rehearsals for the guest artists, ensuring the dance stayed true to the guest artists’ vision.
The dancers auditioned for the IU Contemporary Dance Theatre in the spring, and the “Faculty Dance: Body to Body” winter concert served as their only performance and final for the class. After getting into the class, dancers then had to audition for each piece separately.
The production began with students hopping onto stage playing jump rope during choreography by Koney, an assistant professor of dance at University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, titled “We Play Outside.” His choreography, inspired by childhood games, incorporated familiar games like freeze tag and games typically played in Ghana, drawing from Koney’s own life in Ghana where he lived until he graduated college. After graduation, he was recruited to the United States to earn a master’s degree in international studies from Ohio University.
The next piece was titled “Tap N 2 House” by Robert F. Burden Jr., a contemporary dance faculty member at IU. Burden’s experience as a “club kid” and tap-dancer in the 1980s and 1990s in Philadelphia heavily inspired the piece, incorporating the fusion of both dancing techniques.
After Burden’s piece, Carter’s “I Have Nothing To Say, And I Am Saying It” began in silence, then slowly added music and other sounds, including randomized clips from the “Harry Potter" movies, throughout the piece. Her choreography was based on a Chinese methodology called I Ching, leaving the movement of the students up to chance. IU junior and contemporary dance major Lilia Wolf was one of the dancers to showcase the chance-created choreography chosen by the I Ching methodology. Wolf said the process was student-oriented, with each student’s movement individually being left up to chance.
“At times we were like, ‘Oh, I have no idea what is going on.’ Like, the piece was chaotic and crazy, and we didn’t know what was happening,” Wolf said. “But I think once we got on stage and the lighting and the music was part of it, it starts to really make sense for me.”
“Travels Underground” by Stafford C. Berry Jr., the director of the IU Arfrican American Dance Company, continued the production after Carter’s piece, beginning with flashing lights that direct toward the audience. Berry’s piece took place in a metaverse that highlighted the notion that, “…anyone who claims American status has to have experienced Black existence, regularly,” according to the concert’s program. Dancers incorporated pointed motions and mirrors weaved throughout the dance, with train noises blaring at the climax of the performance.
IU senior and contemporary dance and biology double major Lila Hodgin emphasized the physical rigor of the dances she participated in. Hodgin danced in Carter’s, Montilus’ and Stafford’s pieces.
“Each of the three pieces I was in had very different ways of making process, and so it challenged me a lot in, like, the way that I would approach it, as opposed to just other pieces that I’ve been in before,” Hodgins said.
After intermission, Elizabeth Shea’s choreography titled “The Keepers” began with a spin of dancers in white costumes. Shea is a professor and director of contemporary dance at IU. Inspired by Anne Boleyn’s “Book of Hours,” Shea’s choreography aimed to show the manifestation of humanity through movement, incorporating dancers throwing book pages and scrambling to pick up the pieces.
The choreography titled “The World We Want To See” by Montilus, a Haitian-American dancer from Brooklyn, New York, came next. Montilus’ choreography fused modern and Haitian folkloric dance.
IU junior and contemporary dance major Elena Nissan Thomas said it is important to hear the resistance within Montlius’ piece.
“I think it’s really important in people to take away that one of Maxine’s intentions was that stillness that people really hear, like us as a collective having that resistance,” Thomas said.
A monologue by Aja Monet titled “Why My Love?” began to play as the dancers performed Beatrice Capote’s choreography, “Agape.” Capote is an associate professor in the IU Theatre, Drama and Contemporary Dance department. This final performance aimed to explore the different facets of love and asked the audience to continually question them.
IU sophomore and contemporary dance major Anadi Delaney, who performed in Capote’s “Agape” choreography, said the piece had a clearer message than the rest, which really resonated with her.
“I love the piece I was in because it was a very clear message,” Delaney said. “Not that for some dances you had to kind of guess, but I feel like my dance, I mean, it reiterates that it’s about love, and it’s about platonic love, soulmate love, romantic love.”
IU contemporary dancers will begin performing their senior bachelor’s of fine arts choreography concerts April 30 through May 2 at the Wells-Metz Theatre. More information will be on the Department of Theatre, Drama and Contemporary Dance website or Instagram.
