We're not done yet!

One more show before the summer! The Informance is our informal showcase that highlights our level I choreography students. Directed by Julie Nathanielsz, her four students have a quartet and three solos to perform tomorrow night. The Informance will also include two pieces from Ellen Bartel’s Modern classes as well as presentations from Julie’s Anatomy class.

Eunice during the quartet

This is the first time for all of the choreography students to create dances in an academic class, even though some of them have outside experience. Eunice noted, “I’m used to a do-this-move-on-this-count approach, but this is more like what’s your body telling you to do? There are no counts and it’s much more like improv.” 

Nico has a lot of experience choreographing for drag shows and he noted that the class made him think harder about his work away from the classroom. “I’m trying to work on my next piece and so much of choreography class has been about not letting the music dictate the movement that I’m trying to find that in my choreography. It’s more of a challenge now.”

Nico and Shannon

Shannon, Nico, and Eunice all perform solos based on a personal experience. The solos have a literal quality that can be very challenging for a dancer to execute.

Q: How did you pick your stories?

Nico: Julie wanted a story from our lives that required movement.

Julie: I told them to find a memory that’s composed by movement.

Shannon during her solo

Q: What was the process for finding movement from these stories?

Nico: My story came from a choreographed dance so some of the movement was from that piece and some was improvised with the same style.

Eunice: My story was closer to home [her piece revolves around a living space]. I had lived in that duplex for years so the movement was already in my body. It was closer to my heart.

Shannon: Mine was difficult. It was hard not to just mime the story. Julie had to tell me to really stop and think about it. And Eunice helped with the bird move. She was doing something in class and I was like, that’s perfect! Can I use that?

From the right: Shannon, Eunice, Nico, and Gabbie

The Informance is free and open to the public. It’s in the studio, room 130, at the Rio Grande Campus and starts at 7 pm. Celebrate the end of finals with a great dance show!

Pictures by Anne Wharton