One Last Meet the Choreographer!

Mariusz Kujawski

This year I got the pleasure of performing a solo work titled “Where to? And how to?" This modern work echoes my life journey. It all started in Poland where I was born, Polish, a Slavic language, was my first language that I learned. I was always captivated and attracted by languages, which motivated my parents to sign up me for English twice a week. When my family and I moved to Iceland to better our life condition, we were required to learn how to speak Icelandic in order to communicate. I had a challenging time when put straight into high school; I needed to adopt to an entirely new Germanic language this time. In the dance there will be times when I speak Icelandic and Polish. I understand that most of you won't comprehend the words I will speak but do not worry, the solo will allow you to understand my life story through movement. I look forward to seeing you, enjoy the performance!

TRANSLATION
Polish:]
Welcome, to my little world, world of love and happiness. Where exactly am I, I cannot tell you but through this experience right now on stage maybe together we will discover where I should go. I sit here on this stage and think about my family. I think of my mom, dad, grandma, grandpa, my uncle, my aunt, and all of my cousins.  They all are together with out me. My mom and my dad are far away from this land, they are happy and said, and I hope sometimes they think about me and  whom I became. This bowl is empty and so was my hurt when I left my family to come to the States, I had nothing but half of an idea of what is going to happened. I washed my worries and I wash my past away. I bawl is empty, why is it so empty?

Who are you?
- Pole small.

- What is your sign?
- White Eagle.

- Where do you live?
- Between the lines.

- In which country?
  The Polish country.

- What is this land?
- My homeland.

- How was it gained?
- With Blood and Scars.

- Do you love it there?
- I love sincerely.

- And what do you believe?
- In Poland I believe.

Now I am entering this new world, world of happiness and hope. I spin in this bawl and get lost in its freedom like I get lost in this strange land, full of new ideas.

Icelandic :]
Yes, it was difficult to move from Poland to Iceland. I like it here however, the mountains are beautiful but the people are cold. It was a hard time for me as a teenager. I survived do to my only friend Anton, he was the only one that was open to me, he saved my life with his friendship. Anton I thank you for your strength.

Polish:]
hello who are you? Would you like to join me on this journey? Come with me please.

Mom and my lovely dad, I am coming to you this time I am not so little anymore, not so little any more, not any more.

We Made It!

Opening Night was a huge success! With two more shows this weekend, and three shows next week, we still have a long road ahead of us!
Make sure to purchase your tickets if you haven't already! It's a fabulous, well rounded show that showcases many talented dancers, designers, and choreographers!

Countdown to Opening Night!

1 day until Opening Night!!!

We're almost there! All of the dance works are looking great, the lights are shining, and the costumes look beautiful! I am so proud of every person working on this production and the hard work and effort they are putting forward! Keep it up everybody!

Countdown to Opening Night!

3 days until Opening Night!

Last night's run through went well! During tech week crew members learn their different tasks, dancers figure out the details, and choreographers give final notes! With only three rehearsals left everything is coming together.

Countdown to Opening Night!

4 days until Opening Night!

Tonight dancers, designers, and choreographers come together to run the show as it would be in a full performance!

Countdown to Opening Night!

5 days until Opening Night!

Today was the beginning of our technical rehearsals. The first day of "tech" is used to see the costumes on the dancers and make sure they fit, the dancers can move, and the cast looks cohesive. This day is also usually the first day that lighting cues are called by the stage manager or assistant stage manager. 

Starting tomorrow we will begin running the show as if it were an actual performance! 

Countdown to Afterimages 2013!

10 DAYS UNTIL OPENING NIGHT!

As we are approaching the Thanksgiving break, many choreographers are hosting their final rehearsals, cleaning up their choreography, and making last minute changes! Lighting designers are starting to share their cues and costume designers are sewing away! With tech less than a week away, all of the final preparations are being made!

Meet our Stage Manager!

From Marisa Abbott, our stage manager for Afterimages 2013:

I’m a sophomore studying Theatre Design & Technology. I am the Stage Manager for Afterimages -- for anyone who does not know: In short, the Stage Manager is the main link of communication between everyone involved (choreographers, designers, cast, crew, faculty, etc.). In addition, the Stage Manager helps facilitate everything backstage and calls lighting and sound cues so that the show runs smoothly. This week, my two assistants -- Katie Prosser and Cody Bussian -- are getting ready to move in to the theatre for tech week! We will be setting up headsets for communication, management stations backstage and in the booth, and cleaning a bit. We are extremely excited (and a little nervous) to begin working with everyone in order to create a beautiful show! 

11 days until opening night!

Meet our Student Adjudicator!

Each year, one student sits on the adjudication panel during faculty showing. This year we chose Kailey Field to be this person. Here is a brief summary of her experience:

“Being selected as the Student Adjudicator for Afterimages 2013 by the UW-Stevens Point dance faculty was a privilege and honor.  What a joy it was to see the beautiful and thoughtful works during October.  Every single piece shown during the adjudication process clearly demonstrated the hard work and dedication of UWSP dancers.  Afterimages Outtakes versatility, dynamics, and creative inquiry are a testament to what will come for the full-production of Afterimages 2013.  I am excited to see the student collaboration reach new heights come performance.   Afterimages 2013 is definitely a must-see show of the season.”

~ Kailey Field, 2013 Afterimages Student Adjudicator

Meet the Choreographers!

Alyssa Berube

I am a junior dance and arts management major. I began with a completely different idea and style than what I am working with right now. For the first few weeks I was experimenting with material but it just didn’t feel right. I made the leap and decided to scrap what I had and start over with a completely different idea. It was the best decision for me! My piece is now modern in style and about being one with nature and enjoying the fantastic, brigh colored fall leaves! It’s joyful!

Maggie Zoeller

I am a junior dance major and I am choreographing a contemporary jazz piece. My idea is the way a painting draws in a viewer and how it affects the viewer emotionally. Every individual in my cast is very unique physically and emotionally. Having such a diverse cast helps my piece portray the personal view an individual has towards a painting. The dancers represent a group of people viewing a painting. The dancers are expressing how it makes each of them feel when observing it and what is would be like to become the painting.My approach is to express the meaning behind a painting and making it come to life. It is a challenging process but having such an inspiring cast and creative minds has truly benefited me and helped my vision come to life. The Painting that inspired my work “Woman With A Red Dress”- Tom Benkendorff. I am truly blessed to be working with such inspiring dance artists. I have enjoyed every second I have had with my dancers and have learned so much from each once of them. We have become a family in the process. What has made this experience so special with these dancers is their great interest in the background of the piece and passion for the quality of movement we are expressing. I am stoked to see where this piece takes my cast and I and can’t wait to share my work.
 

Emilee Morton

I am a senior with majors in dance and arts management. My contemporary piece is about the struggle to find happiness when people work too hard trying to be something other than themselves.I have been trying to create as much material as possible and doing a lot of experimenting with my dancers. Now all I have to do is organize and compose my material to create the dance.

 

Meet the Choreographers!

Alyssa Albers

I'm a Junior Dance and Business Administration Major. This year I am choreographing a group tap piece that Due to outside circumstances, my approach has been to get all my choreographic material out and on the dancers first. After that, I will sit back and look at the piece to make any composition/stylistic choices or changes. So far, this mode of thinking has been working and I am very happy with how it is coming along! The concept of my piece is that it is a competition between the dancers and the music, as well as “friendly” competition between the dancers themselves. I feel like this is a good concept to go with, especially with a tap piece, because you have such a variety of options at your disposal- rhythm patterns with both the feet and hands, canons using the steps, etc.


Madelyn Mickelsen

I am a junior Dance and Arts Management Major. The concept of my contemporary/jazz piece is gypsy enslavement during the 1800s. It is a dark subject that we often think about, but do not relate to. Four gypsies have been captured, locked up in a dark cell, and are enslaved. They find this relationship with one another and try to break out together. Through their enslavement they slowly become mentally insane and crack. Due to their insanity they are tortured and killed. My approach is very different from usual. I have created only a few short combinations and branched off from there. Also, my piece is a character study. I am letting the voice of that character come through versus letting the music and movement take me away. My cast has a strong viewpoint of who they are as this character and interprets their own individual character very differently. I ask myself a lot of questions. Where is this person? How are they feeling? What are they going through? I am very satisfied with where my piece is and the direction it is going. 

Meet the Choreographers!

Alison Moerke and Angelina Wilson

Angelina is a 5th year senior and Alison is a junior. Both are Dance majors, Alison also has a Arts Management major and a Peace Studies minor, and Angelina has a Communicative Disorders major with a Psychology minor. They choreographed a contemporary tap duet that used spoken word and body percussion. According to Alison, the collaboration of ideas has been exciting and constantly changing.  We are very similar in some ways, but also very different in others, so it’s a fun mix of rhythms and music choices that we are playing with. 
The idea for their piece? Life. Everyone is an individual and has a different path, but in the end, we’re all related in some way and could get along if only we took the time to understand one another and even though there are so many people on this planet, we are all unique.


Emma Fitzsimmons

Emma is a senior with majors in Dance and International Studies and a minor in Anthropology. She is working on a modern piece about climate change and its relationship to humans. Here's a bit about her process:
I began by giving prompts to my cast to improvise off of. I conducted rehearsals in this way for some time and then began to use the movement that was generated to further my original concept about climate change. The major idea that was conceived from improvisation was blindness and how that can be a metaphor of the incapacity to observe surroundings.

I am now in the phase of composing the dance, which has been enriched by the time spent on improvisation. I believe it is going well, but time is of essence…especially in Afterimages!

Meet The Choreographers!

Alyssa Casey and Catie Smiley

We are both Juniors majoring in dance, and Catie has a minor in Spanish. Our piece has a contemporary/ modern movement vocabulary. We approached our work with the idea of combining our two different styles to add variety to the concept and movement.  Through this we also wanted to explore how we could be inspired by our dancers in order to continue to develop and work towards a final product.  So far this has been going wonderfully and the dancers have truly helped shape the work we are exploring. We were originally inspired by a piece of artwork that depicted two different textures intertwining to create one work.  We both identified with this image, as it reminded us of our own collaboration in creating this piece as co-choreographers.  Through further exploration of the image we identified that it spoke to us about tension and release.  As a result we are currently working with the essence of relief in our work.Working together as choreographers has been a great experience so far.  It is amazing how one person will have an idea that sparks inspiration in the other person.  Up to this point we have not had any disagreements, keeping the image and essence of our piece in mind, we have agreed upon what is right for our concept.  As a result of the collaboration we have been able to develop work that is diverse and a true intertwining of our skills and personal aesthetic preferences. 

Claire Wyttenbach 

I'm a senior, minoring in Dance. My approach to creating is very different this year compared to last year. Instead of picking dancers that had strengths in different styles of dance, which is what I had wanted last year, I selected dancers that all could move expressively in the same style. I also began with a very ambiguous idea this year compared to last year when I had everything planned before the school year even began. The approach definitely gives me more freedom and choice as a choreographer, and I am enjoying working in this way so far. I was inspired to create this Lyrical/Contemporary piece from the feeling of being lonely even in a crowd of people. I sometimes experience this when I am surrounded by couples because although I am in a relationship, I can never spend time with my boyfriend with him being in the military.

Afterimages Outtakes 2013

The Afterimages Production Team would like to send out a huge congratulations to all those who were involved in Afterimages Outtakes 2013. Choreographers and dancers both presented a truly unique, beautiful and flourishing show this past weekend. Each of the twelve pieces shown were bursting at their seams with artistry and choreographic risks. Over 200 audience members joined us in watching Outtakes between Saturday and Sunday’s shows, and shared uncountable positive comments afterwards. We are extremely lucky to have such one-of-a-kind choreographic voices creating and showing their works. We have all agreed this is the most successful and inspirational Outtakes performance we have been a part of yet. Thank you again for sharing your passion and talent. 

    -Afterimages Production Team,

     Brittany Mlsna, Morgan McMahon, and Ashlyn Cianciolo

Meet The Choreographers!

These two choreographers will be premiering their works this weekend in our Afterimages Outtakes show! The show is in NFAC 130 on Saturday and Sunday at 2 PM!

Brittany Mlsna

I am a Senior, with majors in Dance, Accounting, and Business Administration! This year I decided to approach it much differently than last year. Last year, I came in with nearly everything decided already. This year, I came in with nothing and am going to see how it transforms over the process. My piece this year is jazz and my concept is based on the power of women and their femininity. It has a sense of sensuality and power present throughout the piece.


Shane Donohue and Alyx Johnson

Both Juniors, Shane is a Dance and Psychology major and Alyx is a Dance and Arts Management Major. They are choreographing a modern piece which stems from the idea of adaption in social circumstances. The dancers are exploring the question, “What if you let go of all you know?” by expanding from dancing with yourself to dancing with another person. We are currently creating movement that circulates around one point in space--using human like moments to draw the audience into the scene. We have developed a base phrase which we will now work from.

Afterimages Outtakes 2013

Meet The Choreographers!

Emily Janik

I am a senior dance major, who choreographed two pieces for Afterimages 2012. This year I am stepping waaay out of my comfort zone. First off I’m choreographing a Jazz styled piece, which is something I usually never do. I’m also working with a composer on creating original music. Not having set music to start with has definitely been a challenge for me. In the past, I have gone into rehearsal with a really strong idea about the movement and overall construction of the piece. But this time around, everything is being generated simultaneously. I've had to approach my creative process very differently for this particular project.  I want to create a very jazzy old-school, speakeasy feel. To create this I’m working with a multifaceted approach by using live and original music, dancing, singing, and a little acting as well.

Thomas Jacobson

I am a junior dance major and last year I had the opportunity to have my work selected of Afterimages 2012! I am choreographing a contemporary ballet piece this year. My concept is an abstract look at breast cancer and how it emotionally affects not only the life of the patient but also the lives of those around her. My approach was definitely experimental and ever changing at the beginning of the choreographing process but we have reached a very comfortable and exciting place throughout our (the dancers and I) work together. 

Meet The Choreographers!

Ellen Petersen

I am a sixth year senior with majors in Dance and Early Childhood Education/Early Childhood Special Education. This year, I am choreographing a ballet dance that explores individuality in a universal world.  How can you make yourself stick out and be noticed while doing the same thing as everyone else? 

I've been listening to the music and playing around with movement until I find something I like. So far it's working well and I really like the direction my piece is headed!


Gretchen Hoehn

I am a 5th year senior with a major in art and a minor in dance. My approach to this piece, in few words, is “full speed ahead!”  More so than any other work I've made thus far, my vision is very clear.  I have not needed to wrestle with finding a concept, deciding on music, or any other ambiguities that come with creating a dance.  I am harvesting the choreography as it comes to me and have the privilege of setting it on a beautiful, quick-learning cast soon after.  It’s exciting!  I am hoping to get the majority of the choreography taught in the coming weeks (all 11.5 minutes of it…) to leave plenty of room for development, changes, and cleaning.  (fingers crossed)

I tend to grapple with categorizing my choreography, because it is constantly evolving in the rehearsal process.  I am aiming to combine the grounded-ness of modern with the flare of contemporary movement.  In short, this piece deals with the process of mourning and accepting that a loved one has passed.  It can be an unpleasant and sometimes grueling process.  Although it might be easier to forget and move on, I would like to confront the emotions and questions that are so easy to brush aside: the confusion, frustration, anguish …and ultimately the question that haunts us all:  where are they now?   

Meet the Choreographers!

This year, we are having a section of our blog called “Meet the Choreographers!” This will allow you to get to know a bit more of the Afterimages process from people on the inside! So, I’ll start with myself!

Ashlyn Cianciolo

I'm a junior Dance Major and Business Minor. I’m choreographing a contemporary/modern piece based off of people watching. My developing thought is that everyone has an external and internal self. People portray a certain image that they think seems appealing or acceptable in society. These people wear a public “mask.” Because of this idea, my dancers will (most likely) be wearing masks as they’re external role, and take them off when they become their internal character.

I am approaching this year with a much clearer idea than last year. I have more specific characters for my dancers to portray and I think that is helping me move along quicker through the rehearsal process. My cast is also great in embodying whatever I tell them to do! So far everything is going great and I have high hopes for my finished product! 

Morgan McMahon

I'm a senior majoring in Dance and Arts Management. I'm choreographing a Modern/folk piece this year! My piece focuses on the relationships between trees and humans, and vice versa. I love trees, and I think they’re something brushed off by people in life, but I think they have a ton to teach us humans. I’m creating more on the spot than ever. With six dancers to work with, I cannot come in with too much of a choreographic or spatial plan, because things naturally change with six dancers learning material. I love this new way I’m working, because I think it’s not only working better for me, but it’s also making the environment for my dancers a zen, relaxing, and creative one.

Be sure to check back next week to meet two more of our Afterimages Choreographers!

Welcome!

Hello and welcome to the Afterimages 2013 blog!—a place where you can learn more about the dynamic group of student choreographers creating dances this year.  This year’s group of artists is investigating a wide variety of ideas and composing in many styles including modern, ballet, tap and jazz.  My name is Ashlyn Cianciolo, a junior at the University of Wisconsin – Stevens Point, and the newest member of the student production team.  I want to take a moment to express how thrilled I am to get to experience Afterimages from this new vantage point! I am joining senior team members Brittany Mlsna and Morgan McMahon to organize and produce a dance concert that connects to and inspires the audience. We also welcome Marisa Abbott to the team; she is the 2013 stage manager and very excited to run the behind-the-scenes aspects of the concert.

For those that are unfamiliar with the Afterimages process, here’s a quick rundown: Afterimages is a fully student run and student produced dance concert. That means students will be:

• Dancing
• Choreographing
• Lighting
• Costuming
• Stage Managing

Each year, Afterimages begins with around twenty pieces (23 this year!) in rehearsal.  In mid-October these works are shown to a panel of faculty members and one student adjudicator. This team then selects dances that they feel are ready for full production. The remaining dances are then presented in our informal show, Afterimages Outtakes.

A unique part of this year’s Afterimages concert is the spatial orientation of the NFAC Studio Theatre.  We are testing our creative energies by making dances in a thrust stage design—this means there will be audience members on three out of four sides! We are excited to explore the possibilities of this stage orientation, as it is much different from a typical one-sided proscenium theatre.

Over the last three years, I have been a part of many aspects of Afterimages process– dancer, choreographer, and audience member. I am really looking forward to seeing it from a new side, as a part of the production team!   In my freshman year, I was a part of Afterimages Outtakes, the informal show, and got to watch the full production of Afterimages and support my new dance friends. Last year, I dipped my toes into the choreography side of things, and my work was presented in the Afterimages Outtakes concert.  This year I am choreographing again and dancing in several of my peer’s projects. I am so inspired by what my peers are creating and I am looking forward to sharing all of our hard work with the faculty in the upcoming weeks.

Check back next week as we hear from two student choreographers as they discuss their inspirations and creative process.