Choreographed by Peyton Nalley
This piece was developed over the course of an internship in the Department of Dance. The work explores power dynamics and juxtaposes ethereal movement in order to gain deeper understanding of the human condition.
The piece began in silence. Five dancers entered: two of them were in black pants and white shirts and the others were in the same white shirts, but with long gray skirts. After a short while, a sixth dancer entered also wearing the skirt/shirt costume.
It began with three of them on the floor moving low to the ground and three standing and moving. As the piece continued dancers exited and re-entered a number of times; however, the two in pants never exited. They flowed in and out of moving all together, moving in a staggered manner and all doing completely different things. Bodies provided both the characters and the environment of the piece.
When the music begins, it is with a few small whistles, then violins are added and finally a deep cello. The mood of the piece becomes more intense with the addition of music. The levels and flow of this modern dance piece was beautiful to watch. After the performance I asked Dr. Esther Lee what her reaction to the dance was. She said it made her teary and when I asked her why, she said she was particularly moved when an individual dancer would join and then disconnect from the group. As someone who rarely sees live dance performances, this was a delight to see!