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!
Tuesday, November 26, 2013
Monday, November 25, 2013
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.
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.
Saturday, November 16, 2013
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.
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.
Saturday, November 9, 2013
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.
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!
Monday, November 4, 2013
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.
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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)