“The Sensing Body” fall senior dance concert will be presented by Ohio University’s School of Dance at the Shirley Wimmer Dance Theatre on Nov. 21, 22, and 23 at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m.
The dancers featured in the group numbers are all students ranging from freshmen to juniors, and the solos will be performed by seniors.
The performance will feature seven separate performances, mostly modern dance, choreographed by each of seven seniors majoring in dance performance and choreography; including three group numbers, three solos, and one video solo. The performance is part of a senior capstone project and is almost entirely student-run.
Each piece within the performance shares a similar theme of feeling things with the sensing quality of the body, Lexi Bell, a senior studying dance performance and choreography who is organizing fundraising efforts as well as choreographing a group piece, said. This influenced the naming of the concert.
“The title of the concerts is 'The Sensing Body', and we chose that because a lot of our pieces have to do with environment and kind of like, sensing our surroundings and like being aware of the space, your body in that space,” Maya Holcomb, a senior studying dance performance and choreography who is the publicity coordinator for the concert as well as a choreographer and performer featured in the video solo, said.
Within this main topic, the performances have a range of themes.
“I choreographed a group piece, and most of my ideas stem from sculpture by Max Leiva,” Bell said. “I drew inspiration from one of his sculptures and my piece is titled ‘Felt Forms.’ I was mostly playing with the ideas of connection and like architecture and like the human body and like connection between one another.”
Others drew inspiration from personal experiences.
“I was really interested by the idea of embodied experiences and I really wanted to explore my own experiences, particularly with anxiety, and how those emotions exist, not only through like memories in the mind but also through visceral experiences in the body, and how I could use those experiences to then create a movement that authentically recreates those memories,” Kassie Keil, a senior in the college of dance who will be performing this solo at the concert, said.
Other pieces include Holcomb’s, which is a recorded video solo performed in various crowded places to explore the concepts of materiality and where the body fits into the world. Cierra Hill, a senior studying dance and choreographing a group piece, found inspiration in the movement of pedestrians she saw on her way to class.
A unique aspect of this performance is that it has not only been choreographed by seven seniors studying dance performance and choreography, but the other aspects of the performance were also handled by the students as well.
“This is largely a student-run performance, obviously with lots of guidance from our professors,” Keil said.
The jobs taken on by students range from the concert being entirely choreographed by the senior students to a technical crew.
“So we're doing like all the publicity, organizing the photoshoots, hiring someone to create the posters and other students in the School of Dance are doing a tech crew,” Keil said.
Even for those who are not very familiar with dance, Hill feels that the performance offers something within the range of different styles that anyone would enjoy.
“Not only in the concert but also in life in general, just come and explore and see what's out there,” Hill said.
Keil said she believes the concert would be a good way to experience something new for those who have not had a lot of experience with dance.
“I would really just recommend coming with an open mind and just being open to experiencing something new,” Keil said.
