The Movement Organization’s fall dance concert is a time for its members to showcase their talents through different genres of dance.
The Movement is an organization for Ohio University students who are interested in performance and the practice of dance. The show will be Movement’s first and biggest concert of the year, and Rebecca McNay, a senior studying dance and the president of the Movement, believes it to be the organization’s largest source of fundraising.
The concert will be held in the Shirley Wimmer Dance Theater located in Putnam Hall.
“The concert itself is like a traditional dance concert set-up,” McNay said. “All the pieces go through a type of audition that the Movement board goes through. It’s a very formal process.”
The Movement’s fall dance concert will include 11 pieces performed by members of the organization. Dances will vary in genre and style. There will be three solos including a tap solo, two duets and six group pieces. Different genres of dance will combine jazz, theater and comedy to represent modern dance. The concert will be held Thursday and Friday night.
The concert does not have a specific theme to keep the performances as open as possible, McNay said.
“Each piece will stand on its own and tell its own story based on what the choreographers chose,” McNay said. “The student organization is all student-made and student-performed pieces. You don’t have to be a dance major to be a part of the Movement, which is the really cool thing.”
McNay is especially looking forward to the concert’s opening piece because it will be something different from what they have done in the past.
“Our opening group piece was choreographed by one of our members, and she is incorporating a lot of comedy in her piece, as well as text and quirky movement,” McNay said. “I think it’s gonna be really funny and entertaining. It’ll definitely help people get excited for the rest of the concert.”
Each year, the Movement dance concert has pulled in a good crowd of people, and McNay is hoping for the same, if not better turnout this year.
“It’s not gonna be crazy sold out, but we always do fill up a good portion of the seats,” McNay said. “Most of the time it is family and friends, but it always turns out well.”
Maya Holcomb, a junior studying dance, will be performing what she believes to be a post-modern dance.
“Post-modern is more of what we do. I compare it to post-modern visual art because the guidelines and boundaries are kind of broken,” Holcomb said. “It’s kind of like experimentation with the body’s movement. We’re going with the idea that a performance can be anything that’s in front of an audience.”
Overall, Holcomb is excited for what the concert will bring in both her and her fellow members’ performances.
“I think I’m just really looking forward to performing,” Holcomb said. “I’m not really sure what to expect, and I don’t know if I’ll be able to see the other pieces either, but I know they’ll be amazing.”
Aysia Middlebrooks, a junior studying dance, will be performing a duet with Holcomb and is excited for the audience to see that anyone can dance with the Movement.
“A lot of people have the idea that only dancers can dance, or at least perform when that’s not the case,” Middlebrooks said. “Movement opens it up to non-dance majors because, if you have movement that you want to share with anyone, you can feel free to do that in our organization.”
