Closing Concert
Dancing in the Time of Covid
March 25, 2020
A Showcase By Faculty, Students, Alumni, and Guest Artists
PERFORMANCE ORDER
1.) Mirrored Heart by Eve Lukens-Day ’21
2.) Pause, film by Charly Wenzel
3.) Improvised Solo in Silence. by Shura Baryshnikov
4.) Tree vibrations choreography by lisa nevada
5.) Picnic choreography by Wendy Rein ’99 and Ryan Smith ’02
6.) The Shim Shim by What’s on Tap
7.) Battleworks Etude choreography by Robert Battle
8.) when words aren’t enough by Lily Edgerton ’21
9.) Realms choreography by Erika Pujič
10.) Parsons Collage
This concert is part of a rich week of virtual programming, all a tribute to the inventiveness and resilience of dancers. Dancers always find the upside of challenge and this year-long period of Covid-19, when people were suddenly wrenched from intimate social contact has been no different. Dancers — the artists who depend the most on intimate and interactive contact — responded almost immediately by grabbing onto the latest technology to stay connected to each other and their audiences. Professional dance companies opened their vaults and broadcast recordings of concerts that previously had only been accessible to the privileged few. Dancers shared recordings of concerts in intimate spaces with audiences crammed in next to each other within reach of the performers, challenging viewers to recall a time when they took so much for granted. Dancers created new Zoom Box Theatre by reframing familiar classics in their domestic spaces. Through Zoom Box Theatre, choreographers created new works to express their fear, sadness, and isolation. Over the course of the year, Zoom Box Theatre has been evolving into another way to make dance. This concert is a sampler of all of those responses. We can only imagine how the future will view this period when a pandemic engulfed the world, but they will be able to look back at recordings of this concert, place it in historical context, and marvel at what dancers did. – Julie Adams Strandberg
Mirrored Heart
Attitude Dance Company
Choreographer: Eve Lukens-Day, ’21
Music: “Mirrored Heart” by FKA twigs
Cast: Gabriela Asuncion ’21, Eve Lukens-Day ’21, Emily Nguyen ’21, Molly Pearson ’21,
Pause
A film by Charly Wenzel (bio)
PAUSE is a collaboration of 42 artists from over 10 countries, who contributed their work in the form of dance, poetry, photography and music, expressing their state of being during the Corona Virus pandemic. This film is a representation of an international community of artists coming together in a time of crisis in order to share their common experience and to inspire a global community of audiences.
Music:
Karlie Bruce – Voice
Charly Zastrau – Keys
Anthony Fuscaldo – Guitar
David Arend – Acoustic Bass
Mathias Kunzli – Percussion
Produced by Mathias Kunzli
Awards:
Tagore International Film Festival (India) – Winner Experimental Film Critics Choice Award
La Paz International Film Festival (Bolivia) – Winner Best Experimental Short Film
New Orleans Second Line Film Festival – Winner Best Dance Film
Contributing Artists: Caitlin Dutton-Reaver, Charly Wenzel, Agnes Chrakowiecka, Hanna-Lee Sakakibara, Carolyn Hall, Marisa Castillo, Jemimah Simms, Supakarn Niruktisart, Efe Alibo, Angelica Di Sannio, Rose Bèdard,Teresa Fellion, Jody Oberfelder, Darcy Naganuma, Venus Chun, Alex M Schell, Rebekah Morin, Isa Antoniani, Maija García, Laure Duverger, Anna Johannes, Rebeccah Brann, Irving Brann, Tehilah Brann, Patricia Seto-Weiss (bio), Chia-Ying Kao, Ross Daniel, Ashley Zimmerman, Samantha McLoughlin, Vanessa Bunster, Majeed Beenteha, Gene Garvin, Carol Prud’homme Davis, Pia Steen, Abigail Sherman, Carrie Able, Eva Yaa Asantewaa, JC Augustin
Improvised Solo in Silence.
Direction, Choreography, & Performance: Shura Baryshnikov (bio)
This piece of spontaneous choreography was performed on February, 26 2020 in a studio performance at Boston Conservatory at Berklee in Boston, MA as part of A Moment’s Notice Multidisciplinary Salon curated by Olivier Besson and Cass Tunick.
Tree vibrations
Dance Extension and Dancing Legacy Ensemble
Choreography and direction: lisa nevada (bio) with movement and sound contributions by the cast
Music: soundscape of field recordings and Whispered Mantra by S. LaRue by lisa nevada
Cast: Marley Carroll ’21, Abby Cohen ’24, Bridget Cronin, Morgan DeLancy ’22, Nadia Hannan ’14, Simity Jalloh ’21, Hayley Kenney, Dina Melley, Abby Perelman ’22, Erika Pujič
Choreographers note: Tree vibrations was created through movement scores, improvisations of sounding and moving, and by embodying the spirit and soul of the more-than-human, specifically Trees. this work calls on traditional wisdom and teachings of how to steward and care for the Land.
choreographers note on ways to experience this work: as we are not able to gather in physical space together, i encourage audiences to utilize their best options for deep listening, whether through external speakers, earbuds, or headphones.
Picnic (2020)
RAWdance
Direction, Choreography, & Performance: Wendy Rein ’99 (bio), Ryan T. Smith ’02 (bio)
Name of Performing Entity: RAWdance (about)
Editing: Ryan T. Smith
Music: The Underscore Orkestra
The Shim Shim
What’s on Tap
Choreographer: No known choreographer, but additions choreographed by various What’s on Tap alumni
Cast: Brown students should have their class years: Miriam Arden ’23, Marley Caroll ’21, Carlyn Chrabaszcz ’21, Katie Dudley ’24, Momoka Kobayashi ’23, Sam Mickel MD ’22, Kiara Moon ’24, Blanca Payne ’24, Abby Perelman ’22, Addie Schwartz ’22, Zoe Zimmermann ’22
Battleworks Etude (Premiere 2003, Revised 2012)
Choreographer: Robert Battle, arranged by Erika Pujič (bio)
Original Music: Carl Landa
Name of Performing Entity: Dancing Legacy Ensemble
Performers: Marisa f. Ballaro, Lauren Hale Biniaris ‘02, Anna Bjella ‘18, Amy Maria Burns, Elena Glen ‘17, Hayley Kenney, lisa nevada, Erika Pujič, Meggi Sweeney Smith, Katie Wilson
Note: Battleworks Etude is part of Dancing Legacy’s Repertory Etudes Collection, conceived and curated by Carolyn Adams and Julie Adams Strandberg. This performance, from April 2017 at the Paul Taylor Studios in New York City, was part of Celebrating a Visionary: a season of events honoring Julie Adams Strandberg on the occasion of her 75th birthday.
when words aren’t enough
Choreographer: Lily Edgerton ‘21
Music: “On Then and Now” by Woodkid; “There Will Be Days Like These” by Miles Carter
Cast: Lily Edgerton ‘21
Program Note: In a world filled with communication, there are times in life when words do not cut it. In these moments, dance has always been an outlet to work through emotions that are difficult to talk about or that I don’t even know how to verbally express. In my time at Brown, I have seen this same concept at work, existing as a way to bring any and all people together while using dance as a universal language. In this piece, I explored this idea in a dance focusing on movement communication. I worked with the ways in which changing the intention behind a movement can get different messages across without using coherent words at all, as well as attempting to translate a piece of spoken word into only movement. While this project is still a work in progress, my ultimate goal is to find a way to communicate how much Brown has meant to me when words simply aren’t enough.
Realms
Dance Extension and Dancing Legacy Ensemble
Choreographer: Erika Pujič (bio)
Original Music: Carl Landa
Dancers: Ana Lopes Arechiga, Liza Basso ’18, Abby Cohen ’24, Dutch deCarvalho, Morgan DeLancy ’22, Nadia Hannan ’14, Rachel Hemmer ’23, Dana Korogodsky ’21, Grace Moreno ’21, lisa nevada, Fiona Oba, Heidi Sperounis
Parsons Collage
Concept designers and directors: Laura Bennett ‘92, Sarah Friedland ‘14, and Hayley Kenney
Choreographer: David Parsons
Music: Tony Powell
Video editor: Sarah Friedland ‘14
Performers: Rachel Balaban ‘80, Laura Bayley ‘10, Lauren Hale Biniaris ‘02, Hannah Blitzblau ‘99, Cristina Fortenbaugh Carlson ‘87, Marley Carroll ‘21, Bridget Cronin, Vaughn Edelson ‘07, Jodi Falk ‘86, Deborah Friedes Galii ‘03, Becka Vargus Katz ‘94, Caroline Kleeman ‘10, Alex Jenny Ky ‘89, Aleta Margolis ‘89, Christina Metaxa ‘15, Erika Pujič, Wendy Rein ‘99, Hollond Schiller, Ryan Smith ‘02, Leslie C. Tregillus, ’77, P’13, Nathan Weinberger ‘13, Francesca Zetar ’12, Central Falls High School students, DAPpers
Note: Parsons Etude by David Parsons, part of Dancing Legacy’s Repertory Etudes Collection conceived and curated by Carolyn Adams and Julie Adams Strandberg, has been danced by scores of dancers over the years. Parsons Collage features dancers revisiting David Parsons’ choreography or learning it anew. The performers represent a time span of 65 years and thousands of miles…from Tel Aviv to Miami to Cyprus to upstate New York. It’s a testament to “once a dancer, always a dancer.” Dancing is embodied storytelling. It reaches through time to pass dances from one generation to the next in an endless chain of reimagination.