Every seat with a decent view of the stage, both inside and outside of the World Music Hall, was filled this weekend. Students who could not get tickets to the four sold-out Terpsichore performances this weekend sat outside the Hall’s large window, peering in to see an evening of dance… and nudity.
Terpsichore consisted of 11 student-choreographed pieces and two short intermissions. The dance styles ranged from modern to hip-hop to ballet to mock-interpretive.
One piece, however, didn’t quite seem to be a dance at all, or at least certainly not in a conventional way. Not quite choreographed but rather conceptualized by Sam Fleischner ’05, “Four Quarter Perspective” played with the idea of who, or what, was being watched in the performance. Thirteen performers, nude except for the white paint that covered their entire bodies, stood facing a white sheet with their backs to the audience. One additional un-painted figure stood facing the audience.
After the line of bodies had been standing and jumping for a few minutes, a live film of the audience projected onto the white sheet and bodies. For the next few minutes the audience sat watching themselves, unaware of being watched. Throughout this time, groups within the audience would break into laughter though no one was really sure why. Overall, the audience just wasn’t quite sure how to react.
“It was…interesting,” said Lauren Gardner ’07. “Some of my friends were in it, so I was really proud of them.”
The previous piece had elicited laughter as well as it made fun of “activities/mentalities at Wesleyan that take themselves too seriously.”
Performing only on Friday, “17 steps,” choreographed by Lynni Nordheim ’04, featured a little bit of dancing and a little bit of acting. In this piece, seven performers presented their artistic interpretation of popular Wesleyan activities such as interpretive dance, chalking, and anal sex.
The rest of the pieces were more conventional. That is to say, they could be more easily recognized as dance even though they all differed in style.
The first dance of the evening, “MASTI,” featured song and dance inspired by pop-culture from India. The fourteen performers shook, causing the beads they were wearing to jangle. Choreographers Soni Midha ’04, Chetan Devaskar ’04 and Reena Patel ’04 incorporated individual moves into patterns performed by the whole group in unison.
One of the more innovative pieces of the performance, “The Crave,” followed with Jenny Hipscher ’04 and Lily Oster ’04 dancing in simple black dresses to classical music. However, the moves, choreographed by Oster, were not the refined ballet moves one would expect. Hipscher and Oster instead appeared more robotic, controlling their body with sharp, sudden movements. Despite the mechanical nuances of the piece, the dancers were surprisingly graceful.
“I loved the duet because it was so different from all the other pieces. Second of all, I loved it because they moved so well together. There was such a good dynamic throughout the entire piece,” said Ruby Stardrum ’07, who is also a member of Terp and choreographed a dance.
The Terp performance also included three hip-hop minded crowd-pleasers. For “Poison Paradise,” Pia Silva Dubitsky ’06 and Rachel Cohen ’06 choreographed moves to Britney Spears latest always-stuck-in-your-head tune, “Toxic.”
In a similar performance, “Miss Jackson if You’re Nasty,” Mara Gross ’04 and Lauren Pruneski ’04 made a mix of Janet Jackson music to which they and their performers danced in Janet-inspired moves.
For “Shake What Yo Mama Gave Ya,” Hanako Moondance ’06 choreographed a dance with a more laid back, informal feel. Her dancers shook and shimmied to everything from the Beatles to Outkast, showing the wide varieties of ways in which one can shake it.
“I really like the ‘Shake It’ one. It was really silly and fun and colorful,” Gardner said.
To offer some variety, Betti Packman ’07 choreographed “Tap into the Past,” in which she and twelve other dancers did just that. In high ponytails, black tank tops, and colorful skirts the dancers tapped away a timeless, classical tap piece full of clicking heels and toes.
“Sock it To Me,” choreographed by Stardrum, applied the styles of modern dance to Aretha Franklin’s popular anthem “Respect.” Arms in the air, bodies twirling, four dancers enthusiastically moved to Aretha’s soulful words.
The performance ended with “La Belle at Le Bad Boy,” choreographed by Sarah Schaub ’06 in collaboration with Hallie Dalsimer ’05, and performed by the eight person Terp Core. “La Belle” was a funky piece to the rhymes of French artist MC Solaar. Wearing bright colors, the dancers combined gymnastics and acrobatics into the piece, resulting in a broad array of interesting moves.
Overall, the performance was entertaining with a wide range of crowd-pleasers to crowd-shockers and dances for every taste.
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