Onward

I was very excited to have the opportunity to choreograph a piece on Hillcrest High School Dance Company, my alma mater. After having the chance to teach for them during their August company retreat, it was really cool to see how they have grown as a company over the past couple of months. I had two challenges going into this process: 1) trying to keep everyone as spaced apart as possible to maintain Covid safety, and 2) somewhat limited time, with only about 8 hours of rehearsal to set the whole piece. Knowing that they will come back and polish all of the movement in March when they prepare for their show and leaving them with videos of myself performing the movement, I decided to focus on getting the material laid and the structure as clear as possible. Though looking back, I do think I could have spent more time emphasizing what the movement was meant to communicate and specifying textures, even if it meant less time to put the whole thing together. Last time I set a piece on 30 dancers it was three years ago when I was President of this very dance company, so it took a moment to adjust to how much time it took to do everything.

I was really excited about using some of the choreographic tools that I developed during my Independent Study project this past fall semester. The main one that I used was a score that prompted the dancers to create their own solos that were all unique but related in rhythm and texture. While this was challenging in some ways because the dancers’ choices were unpredictable, it gave them a sense of ownership for that movement and helped them find their own story within the dance.

Around this time we were starting to hear about the possibility that widespread vaccination might be completed by April or May 2021, which is around the time that their concert is set to occur. I was inspired to make something that focused on community, moving together and forward. The entire piece progresses from stage right to left as the dancers slowly shift their focus from what they left behind to what they are moving toward. The solos open the piece and focus on a tension and unwillingness to let go but by the end they are all moving optimistically in unison to a rhythmic beat that takes them off stage. I hoped for the dancers to find a space for themselves within the work and when they perform it in April it will give a sense of moving onward for everyone, as we hopefully will be moving out of this pandemic.

Music: Doll’s Estate by Youth Lagoon

Program Note: The process of moving on often means moving through stillness, tension, and unease, caught between the past and the future until we finally let go, and fall together towards what is next.