Art tells a story, and the NSU Dance Ensemble told six of them at “Dance Works” on Nov. 5 at the Performance Theatre in the Don Taft University Center.
All the performances were works in progress. One dance was an excerpt of “Faces of a Cocoa God,” choreographed by Chetachi Egwu, Ph.D., assistant professor of communication studies. The piece featured a video with religious and political imagery and spoken word. The dance ended with one dancer bringing out a flag and others following her. Egwu described the dance as an Afro-modern piece, which shows how black people connect with religion, politics and spirituality.
The dance “Ripple Effect” was also accompanied by a video of water in a stream. At the beginning of the dance, the dancers were far apart. After they met at the center of the stage, they moved against each other, responding to each other’s movements.
Daniela Wancier, adjunct dance instructor who choreographed the piece, said that dance explores the idea of cause and effect relationships in movement and between people.
“In congruence with the title, it has a fluidity that travels through space and sudden movement and quickness. It’s about riding the momentum of gravity and the elements of resistance in facing that ripple,” Wancier said.
Other pieces included “I Stood Here Yesterday,” “Dreamscapes,” and “Finding the Light,” which won a division of performing and visual arts 2009-2010 Black Box Award for outstanding choreography.
“Playful Harmony” was a structured improvisation piece developed by Amy Peters, junior dance major, and Nova Lishon-Savarino, senior dance major, in their dance improvisation class. The dancers used robot-like and running movements to show the characters’ differences. Lishon-Savarino was dressed whimsically and colorfully while Peters’ character was more serious and wore black and white. However, both wore identical leg warmers on their arms, which Lishon-Savarino said was important to the meaning of the piece.
“Every time we toss a movement or are telling something, we connect our arms,” Lishon-Savarino said. “I need her to complete me. I’m the colorful one, but I need the conservative, black and white as well, to make one, to make a harmony.”
Lishon-Savarino and Peters also used spoken word during the performance telling each other to fall, die, run, cry and hold hands. Peters said the spoken word was part of the dance’s combination of two structures.
“The first part was tossing quality of movement to each other. First, I did something robotic and then I tossed it to her. She changed it to flowy, and she tossed it to me so it was playful in that way,” Peters said. “And then the second part, we played with words, telling each to fall, to cry, to die, and we reacted on that and we reacted to each other at the same time.”
After the concert, the dancers and the choreographers took questions from the audience about the choreography and the meaning of the pieces.
Nathalie Rengel, senior business administration and dance major, could not perform her scheduled solo “Job Application” because she sprained her ankle during a rehearsal.
“We ran the show twice and on the second time, while finishing the last piece, I was supposed to put one of the dancers on the floor. I really don’t know what happened. She fell on top of my foot causing my ankle to be injured,” Rengel said.
Rengel also said she was looking forward to dancing to her full ability during the more elaborate dance concert in March.
“At the beginning, it was hard and I was sad because I have been practicing for almost three months for the show. But everything happens for a reason,” she said.
Despite the problems during rehearsal, Sharifa Den, sophomore criminal justice major, said she enjoyed performing in the concert.
“I feel like it went really well. All the time and energy we spent on it definitely paid off,” she said.
