The program told the audience that A, C, G, and T are “the abbreviations for the four building blocks of the genome.” What it didn’t say was that the letters would also be the building blocks of the most entertaining dance of the Fall Faculty Dance Concert last Friday and Saturday at the ’92 Theatre.
“Mice and Men: A, C, G, T” was performed by Professor of Music Neely Bruce, Visiting Instructor in Dance Brad Roth, and Bob Englehart, the editorial cartoonist for The Hartford Courant. Each part of the dance started with Englehart writing all four letters onto the overhead projector on stage. He then connected these letters in the images of mice, men, women, and sperm traveling to impregnate an egg.
Bruce improvised on the piano off of Englhart’s images and Roth interpretatively danced in reaction to both mediums. Roth seemed to be both serious and playful. He moved with intensity during the drawing of a man and strutted in a feminine manner while Englehart sketched an image of a woman. For the image of the sperm, Roth pretended to be making out with someone and hid behind the projection screen in an act of modesty towards the end of the impregnation part.
This piece highlights just some of the different inspirations of the night. Themes of the dance varied from biology to romance, reproduction to Indian dance.
“One Fifth,” performed by artist-in-residence Hari Kirshnan and multi-medium artist and dancer Sudarsan Belsare, started the night off with an intense and hypnotic Bharatnatyam dance. The two men wore only long black wraps with their hair pulled back and performed barefoot, and bare-chested. They both started out with slow, robotic movements that escalated into seemingly frenzied dancing. The two exchanged many poses and worked well as individual dancers and partners.
“The very opening of the concert blew me away,” said Oriana Okorol ’09. “The performers’ body control and slow precise movements were exhilarating, even though they were so minute. The music in this piece was also great.”
Visiting Professor of Dance Kim Root’s piece, “Chopped Logic,” was originally choreographed in 1995 in Seattle, Wash. Rachel Cleveland ’06, Jess Eipper ’06, Khalia Frazier ’07, and Annie Hewlett ’06 performed the dance. All four students wore new-age body suits of different colors that were fun and flattering on all the dancers. No music was played throughout the piece and the dancers called out names of moves, such as “cobra,” “done,” and “go.” The dancers’ breathing could be heard while they performed, creating closeness between the audience and the dancers.
“Underneath” was the most intimate piece of the night. Dancer and choreographer Tim Wilson and artist-in-residence Patricia Beaman, clad all in black, moved together gracefully and beautifully. They shared the space well and played off each other’s movements. At one point Beaman leaped into Wilson’s arms and slid down the entirety of his body to the gasping of the audience.
“I loved the music for Patricia’s piece, and the movement was so beautiful and emotional,” said Rebecca Gitlin ’08. “I also loved the physical experimentation involving the exchange of weight between a large man and a smaller woman.”
“The Dancing Genome,” the last piece of the night, was the most controversial. A two-act number, the first half consisted of Justin Francis ’06 and Roth performing half in the nude together to the piano music of Neely Bruce. The two worked well together and seemed to vibe off of each other. The second half was entitled “Courtship Ritual” and was danced to the music of Weezer’s “Say it Ain’t So.” It showcased “programmatic posturing proceeding procreation partnership and propagation of people.” Two young girls, one in a bridal dress, the other in a pop star costume, started out in a swimming pool playing with toys. Then out came four girls who proceeded to take off their clothes and simulate lying out on the beach. Roth and Francis then came out with a surfboard and two beach balls carefully placed in the form of a male erection. Then Roth and Francis watched the girls undress and erotically danced around the stage with them for the rest of the performance.
The night seemed to have something for everyone and showcased the diversity of thought and dance present in the dance department. It not only merged teacher with student, but science with dance.
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