A Glimpse of What to Expect at Senior Dance Concert

Senior Dance Concert Requires Open Mind

                                     

Don’t expect your typical jazz, tap and ballet combos at the upcoming Senior Dance Concert; the modern performances of the six seniors will make you work to open up your mind and think about the meaning behind each performance.

“The audience knows the story behind the Nutcracker because there’s a very specific story that goes along with it and they know it’s the same thing every time they go,” said Kelsey Lynn Maiolo, one of the six seniors performing this week. “With this concert, you never know what you’re going to get.”

This Thursday, Friday and Saturday the six BFA dance majors will finally be able to showcase their four years at Ohio University. All of the hard work they’ve put into this semester preparing for the concert has been part of their senior capstone project. 

Between the six, they were in charge of organizing and planning the lighting, sound, costumes and publicity for the concert. Outside of class the dancers put in 6-10 hours per week solely on rehearsing and choreographing their pieces. Halfway through the semester they met with professors to receive feedback on their pieces.

“The concert is to show what we have learned; what you have taken from this program, and how are you going to apply it to your own style,” said Kelsey.

All of the pieces have a unique motivation behind them and portray a story for the audience to interpret. For Kelseys piece, “Who Knew Lakes Had Waves?” she drew from a recent mission trip to Cleveland as a college advisor for a high school youth group in her hometown of Monroe, Connecticut. She bounced between different worksites such as food banks, men’s shelters and local churches.

“It was a huge emotional roller coaster for me. I took data every day in a journal and wrote down who I was with, what I was doing, who I met, what kind of job I was doing and how I was feeling,” said Kelsey.

Her piece is based off of the day-by-day layout of her trip. She focused around the “give and take” concept as she had to give up her time over the summer but simultaneously took something away from the trip.

“Our concert has a variety of different kinds of works with some of them being light and happy and some of them being dark and dramatic,” said Michael O’Neill, one of the six seniors. “I hope our audience is engaged in every piece and leave feeling like they have seen or learned something new.”

Plan on making it to one of the six different performances of the concert this week and make sure you’re ready to think.

“People should come to this with an open mind about dance,” said Kelsey. “There’s no right or wrong answer, just whatever you’re thinking or whatever you get from it is perfectly fine. Make your own interpretations.”

Performances will be November 15, 16 and 17 with two shows each evening at 7:00 pm and 9:00pm at the Shirley Wimmer Theater in Putnam Hall. Tickets can be purchased at the Box Office at Templeton-Blackburn Alumni Memorial Auditorium.  General Admission is $6 and is free for Ohio University students with a valid I.D.  The Box Office can be reached at (740) 593-1780.

For more information http://www.calendarwiz.com/calendars/calendar.php?crd=artsforohio&&jsenabled=1

-Ashleigh Mavros, Events Publicity Assistant