This weekend, School of Dance students will put a little spring in their steps.
Friday and Saturday, Ohio University’s School of Dance presents its Spring Dance Concert. The concert features dancers performing works by guest artist Lisa Lock, professors from the School of Dance and student work selected by adjudication.
Lock returns to OU for her third time and has spent the quarter working with students on different dance techniques. She has choreographed two dances for the show, a duet titled “Little White Flowers,” and a group number for five women called “Miya Niya,” which she said was inspired by snakes and a woman’s almost-serpentine power.
“The music is a little bit eerie and scary, and I generate the movement of snakes in the dancers,” Lock said. “They have a little bit of edge which is a metaphor because women have a power; they are strong and you respect them for it.”
Mickie Geller, a professor of dance, originally created her piece for the concert titled “Half-Unnamed Couple” in 1989 when she did improvisational work with dancers. She has since re-worked the piece with two dancers, who made the process an enjoyable one, she said.
“Michael O’Neill and Emma Rumberg are both very experienced performers, so they were able to learn the material quickly and invest it with just the right movement qualities to get my ideas across,” Geller said. “They were very helpful and generous in figuring out how to execute some new partnering material that I added.”
While professors created most of the pieces, individuals or teams of students in the School of Dance choreographed several as well. Allison Brandon, a sophomore studying dance, created the piece “Membrane” with fellow students Lauren Slivosky and Liz Conway. They later decided to enter the piece into the concert.
“Our piece was originally a comp study that we did,” Brandon said. “The assignment was creating a piece that could not be done without a prop; we chose to work with a sheet. We picked the sound effects from the planet Uranus and came up with this image that we are on another planet and we are discovering this thing (the sheet).”
In addition to these pieces, there are also dances by Assistant Professor of Theater Rebecca VerNooy and students Steven Evans and Annie Scott.
ks574510@ohiou.edu
If You Go:
What: Ohio University’s School of Dance Spring Concert
When: 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday
Where: Shirley Wimmer Dance Theater, Putnam Hall
Admission: $8
