Ohio University dance major Jennifer Rusynyk's choreography represents the School of Dance today at the John F. Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., for the National College Dance Festival, and is also the nominee from the East Central region for the Outstanding Student Choreography Award.
OU student choreography has been sent to the festival three or four times before, but this may be the first time a student from OU has been nominated for the student choreography award, said Madeleine Scott, director of the School of Dance.
School of Dance faculty selects the choreography to be sent to the regional conference, which was hosted by Ohio State University this year, Scott said. Rusynyk's piece was a unanimous selection, she said.
Choreography from about 40 dances per each national region is selected by adjudicators to continue to the national festival. Each region also nominates one choreographer for the student choreographer award.
Four pieces were selected from the East Central Region to go on to the National Festival, Scott said. Two of the pieces were choreographed by faculty members, and one was choreographed by a graduate student. Rusynyk was the only undergraduate student, she said.
In 2004, during her sophomore year at OU, Rusynyk choreographed the distinctive dance, titled Something Went
in Professor Mickie Geller's dance composition class.
I had a picture in my head of a wall of dancers Rusynyk said.
This line of dancers ' anywhere from eight to 18 dancers ' essentially walks slowly upstage to downstage, approaching the audience, Rusynyk said. The performers draw from a set of strict improvisational rules; each dancer chooses three of five different approved moves to execute, she said. They are mix and matching Rusynyk said.
Something Went has been performing since spring of 2004, but each performance is different, Rusynyk said. The movements are very minimal and straightforward, but the dancers progress with an intense sense of purpose. It's very calm and coolly defiant.
Rusynyk chose Ella Fitzgerald's Anything Goes to accompany the piece, and simple costumes of knee-length trench coats.
The showy music makes an interesting contrast with the understated movements, Rusynyk said.
All of the dancers are different in their facial expressions, but it is a limited range because they are very serious, even deadpan. Hints of character development show in their eye movements, Geller said. It's a very simple dance
but it is very hard to perform.
It is unusual for a student, especially a sophomore at the time, to feel confident about something so simplistic without feeling compelled to add a lot of showy movement, she said.
The majority of dances at the regional conference were about 10 min., but Something Went only lasts three and one-half minutes, Rusynyk said. The adjudicators wanted a second or third movement. It left them wanting more
but maybe that's what dance is supposed to be
she said.
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