Monday, July 27, 2009

MacKenziesaurus Thinks About the Spring 2009 Dance Performance

This is another article for the Hill-Top news. Some of you may have read this article, but the editor took quite a few liberties in editing and the final product was rather tame and bland. Here's the E! True Hollywood-version of the article
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FREE AT LAST!

The Birmingham-Southern College Theatre and Dance departments have chosen a new poster-child in William Wallace as they cry “FREEDOM.”

Every pirouette, every arabesque, every painstakingly pointless rond de jambe a terra, has forced the exhaust of artistic desire into the campus dancing community, until it has no choice but to explode. Explode, it shall! May 2nd, Birmingham-Southern's dancing community will be free. With that freedom will come one of the most worthwhile CEIS credits of the semester; however, as the campus' dance department is prone to do, the performance will be so inspiring that the promise of credit will come as a mere afterthought, like an after dinner mint. The performance will feature ten student choreographed pieces, revealing each choreographer's artistic visions and is, according to student choreographer Jon Collins, “a platform for choreographers to comment on issues that are relevant to everyone.” Choreographers include Jon Collins, Nell Heflin, Whitney Mayfield, Liz Cochran, Lauren Hamilton, Anais Plasketes, Gowoon Koo, Ashley Andrews and guest artist Josh Henderson. Write down what you know about dance performances on a sheet of paper, then take that sheet of paper outside and burn it. The student choreographers dance gleefully upon the box after a long semester of countless plies inside of it. Anais Plasketes' piece will feature a live band, Without a Cello, and Jon Collins' will feature a live poetry reading. Dance, as goes for many of the arts, to the general academic community, is in danger of appearing to be a bunch of kids that have decided to major in a hobby, or something they just like to do. To Anais, choreographing her own piece was more than just an exercise of a pass-time, it was a way touch people, “(The essential part has been) The story telling aspect of it, having the dancers become a story that is really important to me, but can touch a lot of people in many different ways that are important to them.”
Besides the obvious benefits of encouraging and rewarding students that have worked so hard, why should you come? Jon Collins described the importance of dance and, more directly, why student choreography is so important to support, “(Dance) communicates the essence of our desires, struggles and successes in a powerful and effective way. You should come see the performance in order to experience the transcendence of dance.” It shouldn't be the CEIS credit that brings you to the concert, nor even the support of participating friends, but the hope that when you leave the theatre you'll be different, and hopefully for the better. The Birmingham-Southern Dance Department will deliver upon that hope.

Freedom is symbolic, too, to Birmingham Southern's theatre department. With two separate nights of student chosen and directed one acts, Wednesday and Thursday nights at 7:30. Wednesday night features scenes from Fast Girls, directed by Liz Garrett, Drip Torch, from Nat Bonner, The Star-Spangled Girl, from Amanda Kramer, Oleanna, from Ginny Coats, and Sure Thing, from Chris Hicks. Thursday night features scenes from The Shape of Things, from Anais Plasketes, Sophisticated Barflies, from Anna Stranlund, Long Day's Journey Into Night, from Matt Adams, The Park Bench, from Perry Strehle, and Fin and Euba, from John McGinnis. In addition to the abundance of student directors, each show features two campus actors, many of which are outside of the department. CEIS credits are offered, for those weaseling scavengers amongst you. Liz Garrett encourages the campus community to attend, “because there is such an array of emotions to experience. The two words that come to mind are 'emotional roller-coaster' and if you're into that, you'll love it. You won't predict anything for either of the nights, and revel in that not knowing.” Anais Plasketes, exercising her second bought of freedom, says the one acts are necessary because, “you may find yourself uncomfortable when the one acts question some of your beliefs, but you'll walk away with something untangle, but life changing.”
The one acts are a well-rounded assortment of comedy, tragedy, absurdity, and realism. They offer a brief view into the hearts of ten playwrights, ten directors, and twenty actors. Do the math; that's a lot of hearts to peer into for one night of theatre.

Dance Performance, May 2nd at 7:30
Theatre Performances May 6th and 7th at 7:30pm

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