Posted April 1, 2009
Animal behavior
Boyer students work with a professional to recreate animal-inspired choreography
| Several dance students gather in Conwell Dance Theater to prepare to rehearse for an upcoming performance. The dancers bend and stretch, working through a series of routine exercises. But given the task ahead, warming up their muscles isn't the only thing on their minds.
In addition to paying close attention to style and form, the piece they’re preparing requires them to see things from a different perspective: the perspective of a penguin. “It’s been an interesting experience,” said Ashleigh Penrod, co-director of the piece and dance M.F.A. candidate. “I don’t remember the last time I tried to embody a penguin. It’s been challenging. Becoming these animals, while allowing our personalities to shine through, has been really important for this piece.” |
 Photo courtesy of Chris Elam
Chris Elam, artistic director of Misnomer Dance Theater, worked with Boyer College of Music and Dance students to recreate a piece focused on animal movements. Elam’s company (above) is known for creating contemporary dances about human relationships that are informed by cross-cultural and international perspectives.
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In addition to Humboldt penguins, Penrod and several graduate and undergraduate Boyer College of Music and Dance students will embody gibbon monkeys, native to Asia, during “Animal Interplay,” a piece choreographed by Chris Elam of Misnomer Dance Theater. Boyer will present “Animal Interplay” and original choreography by dance faculty during 7 Artists, the annual faculty dance concert on Friday, April 3 and Saturday, April 4. “When the audience watches the cast, I hope they can envision what the performers are thinking and experiencing,” said Elam. “They are going through several processes: repeating specific words in their minds, squinting their eyes to defocus, flushing their memories — all at the same time as performing the choreography.” In preparation for the piece, the students observed the animal behavior of dogs, penguins and white-cheeked gibbons on video clips and mimicked the animals’ behavior patterns and manners of interaction. “The range of social behaviors varies in each animal,” said Angela Sigley. “For the piece, we imitate preening, hugging, courtship, play, threat and affection and try to think and initiate actions from the mindset that we believed the animal experience.” The goal of the project was to examine a new source for creating dance, Elam says. “We wished to challenge our skill-set as performers by thinking and moving in a foreign manner, and we wanted to see what artistic value could arise out of a choreography that drew from a focus on social behavior as opposed to aesthetics,” Elam said. In addition to Elam’s piece, Boyer faculty Marionela Boan, Eva Gholson, Luke Kahlich, Kun-Yang Lin, Merián Soto and Kariamu Welsh will present original choreography. Performances will begin at 8 p.m. on April 3 and 4, and will be held in Conwell Dance Theater, located on the fifth floor of Conwell Hall at the northeast corner of Broad Street and Montgomery Avenue. |
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