Dance student Erin Hewitt gives us a sneak peak at one of the pieces that will be featured in this year's Spring Dance Showcase.
With only two weeks to go until opening night, working on Natalie's Greene's piece is still as exciting as the very first rehearsal. Natalie is a dance instructor for the USF Performing Arts and Social Justice department, teaching classes such as Jazz Theater and Dance Outreach: where students learn to teach dance to elementary school students. Her wide range of abilities and interests really comes through in this piece. This "dark fairytale" has so much going on, it's hard to describe one specific focus of the work...but I'll try!
I think the piece has a great sense of wonder, curiosity and whimsy. The large cast is divided into two elements. The larger group is investigating the elements of nature and the small ensemble is representing the young, and often foolish, humans. There's a sense of controlled chaos, like a storm that could happen at any moment. Natalie is a great collaborator and artist, and with such a large ensemble it's been great to see her use everyone's strengths (and the visual power of so many bodies on stage) to create a powerful image of the universe...and what little we really understand about it.
Whew! That seems like a whole lot of heavy stuff! I bet you're wondering how we've been working towards the finished product. Obviously we've been trying to step into the choreographer's mind, listening to her ideas and what inspired her to make the piece. But, because we're not psychic, Natalie gave us all cute little notebooks to write in. As we wrote about song lyrics, fairy tales, our relationships to nature and more, we were rewarded with brightly colored stickers!! And, ya know, lots of artistic collaboration.
I think the piece has a great sense of wonder, curiosity and whimsy. The large cast is divided into two elements. The larger group is investigating the elements of nature and the small ensemble is representing the young, and often foolish, humans. There's a sense of controlled chaos, like a storm that could happen at any moment. Natalie is a great collaborator and artist, and with such a large ensemble it's been great to see her use everyone's strengths (and the visual power of so many bodies on stage) to create a powerful image of the universe...and what little we really understand about it.
Whew! That seems like a whole lot of heavy stuff! I bet you're wondering how we've been working towards the finished product. Obviously we've been trying to step into the choreographer's mind, listening to her ideas and what inspired her to make the piece. But, because we're not psychic, Natalie gave us all cute little notebooks to write in. As we wrote about song lyrics, fairy tales, our relationships to nature and more, we were rewarded with brightly colored stickers!! And, ya know, lots of artistic collaboration.
Photo by Erin Hewitt
I hope I've piqued your interest, or at least confused you into a state of curiosity. It's been a lot of hard/fun work, and we want to share it with you! Be sure to come check out our dance and all the other awesome pieces in this years Spring Dance Concert.
Natalie Greene's dance piece is part of the upcoming Spring Dance Performance featuring USF's Dance Ensemble. The show will take place at Presentation Theater on April 30th and May 1st at 8pm.
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