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Against a maroon, bottom-lit screen, eight groups of student and professional dancers took the stage in the Touhill's Lee Theater Thursday night.
The Fall 2007 Dance Concert, Nov. 8-10, featured UM-St. Louis student choreographers and dancers with a guest performance by the Modern American Dance Company.The Fall 2007 Dance Concert presented a whole spectrum of human emotions and actions.
The evening opened with a fierce, modern dance rendition of a Greek tragedy choreographed by Arica Brown, who lately presented her work "Cold Hands and Heat Rises" in Gallery Visio. Dubbed "Terma," translated as "reaching the end," the opening number moved sharply with a Medea feel of death and collapse.
The dance included UM-St. Louis students Min Park, Brendan Garland, Dale Robison, Becky Pasley, Amanda Boyer, Brieanna Brewer, Courtney Gibson and Christa Bross.
Matthew Steiner, a recent performer in the play "Noises Off!" presented an unusual piece, mostly a solo performance, to recorded conversation snippets.
Three fellow performers - Min Park, Brieanna Brewer and Taylor Pietz - crossed the stage wearing masks, which were, one by one, removed for the audience. The final mask revealed another mask or, as the title says, "Our Other Faces."
"Coup de Grâce" began with "demented souls" oozing onto stage, as if they could be anyone from the audience. The dance, a bit like a high school dance team number complete with choppy music editing, told the story of fallen angels begging for forgiveness, each dancing in solo supplication to the angelic dancers.
The angelic dancers, instead of prevailing as good often does, were forced to join the demented souls at the end of the piece.
Performers included Jessica Cross, Kacie Estes, Kimberly Kellum, Brittany Hill, and Tina Ly as demented souls and Kelli-Wai Ming He and Lan Nguyen as the angels. "Coup de Grâce" was choreographed by Jessica Cross and Kacie Estes.
Choreographed by Rob Scoggins, assistant professor of dance, "Shake It: A Serious Social Commentary" portrayed childlike melodrama with a gleeful shout of "Look at my hair!" from dancer Arica Brown.
While receiving heartfelt laughter from the audience, "Shake It" definitely spoke to our culture's image obsession and vilification of anyone who asks us to see beyond ourselves.
Amanda Boyer provided live music while Dale Robison, Christa Bross, Arica Brown, Brendan Gartland, Masha Pryamkova, Krystle Duffy, Courtney Gibson and Becky Pasley danced.
"Just Another Morning," choreographed and performed by Taylor Pietz, told the everyday story of waking up in college to the Peanuts theme "Linus and Lucy."
The story ends with a humorous twist though, as the studious, awake roommate suddenly decides to copy her friend, played by Brieanna Brewer, and go back to bed.
Featuring live music by guitarist Rick Gibson and vocalist Keith Parker, "Touch Me" presented two couples of dancers, Courtney Gibson, Brendan Gartland, Arica Brown and Dale Robison.
Choreographed by Gibson, also recently of "Noises Off," the number portrayed different ways to touch a lover which may have seemed the same if they had not been shown side by side with minute detail.
The guest piece "Battlefield," performed by the Modern American Dance Company, featured tight formations and exhausting energy.
The audience responded with impressed cheers to the finely tuned choreography of eight dancers moving from circular to line formations and back. The piece represented the regimented preparation of battle, but never dissolved into the chaos of actual warfare.
The final number, "Burghers of Calais," brought to life a sculpture of the same name through dancers Christa Bross, Arica Brown, Dale Robison, Brendan Gartland, Becky Pasley and Min Park.
The piece choreographed by Stacy West moved from heavy classical music and movements to a more celebratory tribal feel as each performer removed their rags or laid down their lives.
*Click here to view a photo slideshow of the 2007 Fall Dance Concert.
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