Meet Marilyn!

Marilyn Connelly dancing through her tech rehearsal.

Marilyn Connelly's first taste of ACC Dance was a workshop at her high school. She connected with Darla Johnson during The JUSTICE Project and officially began her adventure at ACC. Originally enrolling as an early college start student, Marilyn has since graduated high school and is taking her next step in the dance world by choreographing for ACC's Choreographers' Showcase.

How was choreographing at ACC different from your process in high school?
I've never choreographed like this before. It was a completely different way to generate work; different tools and techniques. I incorporated gestural movement. And I used poem phrases; we made works off of poems that classmates had written. I like words and enjoyed incorporating not only the words but the rhythms of the poems into movement. 

What inspired your piece Internal Trialogue?
The idea of internal dialogue; being by yourself, talking in your head. I've been thinking about words and speech in dance so I knew I wanted to incorporate them in my piece too.

Connecting with her dancers; left to right: Alyssa Canas, Marilyn Connelly and Lindsey Gerson.

What do you want the audience to take away from viewing your dance?
I want them to feel all the different facets and emotions in the piece. There are sweet emotions and sweet movements, but there's more going on. It's about all the different emotions in our brain. 

Marilyn premieres her work December 4 & 5 at 8:00 pm on the Mainstage at the Rio Grande Campus. For more information, visit the Choreographers' Showcase Facebook.


Photos by Anne Wharton.