Students took the stage at Gordon Wilson Hall Lab Theatre from Feb. 13 to Feb. 16 as the WKU Dance Program presented “The Dance Project” to the community.
Junior choreographer Shelby Cooley from Louisville said “The Dance Project” is a collection of student-choreographed dance works that are judged and chosen for the show. Juniors and seniors either volunteer for the event or were invited to it after taking Dance 420: Choreography II. They said choreographers get to create dance performances that their fellow students get to participate in.
“My piece is about mushrooms, trees and the root networks between them,” Cooley said. “I focus mostly on how they interact with each other, [and] the shapes and natural structures that they create.”
Cooley said they utilized a blend of modern contemporary dance and ballet for their piece.
“The trees are modern-based choreography because they represent earthiness and structure,” Cooley said. “ I incorporated ballet movement to mushrooms so they could contrast each other because they have a lot of different biological features that necessitate different expressions.”
Junior Sydney Railsback from Kokomo, Indiana, said participating in “The Dance Project” is a long-term process. She said the casting and rehearsal process began in late August and lasted until November or December.
Before getting the chance to participate in “The Dance Project,” Ralisback said student choreographers share their creations for the first time in “Last Chance to Dance.” Railsback said this is an informal student showcase held in late November featuring works from the Department of Dance and the Dance 420: Choreography II class. After “Last Chance to Dance,” preparations and rehearsals begin for “The Dance Project.”
Railsback said her favorite part of choreographing for other students to participate in is the ability to work with a variety of dancers.
“You get to see them in a different light than you usually do,” Railsback said. “You get to see a more creative side of them.”
Railsback said she was inspired to create her piece based on the nightmares she often had.
“I’m fascinated about how the brain sees in REM sleep and how it creates all those different images,” Railsback said.
Railsback said her piece involved five dancers dressed in nightgowns living through a nightmare. It shows the fantastical parts, the frightening parts and everything that composes a nightmare. She said that throughout the piece, one of the dancers realizes they’re in a nightmare, and cannot wake up from it. In the end, all the dancers awake with a big gasp and realize the dream is over.
Junior Marissa Burch, a dance major from Louisville said she found the most difficult part of choreographing to be conveying exactly how she wanted the performance to go.
“Sometimes it’s hard to verbalize what I want,” Burch said. “I can physically do it, but it’s hard to describe it.”
However, Burch said this didn’t stop her from persevering and getting their pieces to the main stage.
Burch said her piece was inspired by an art installation she saw in Louisville called the “Infinity Mirror Room.”
It was also based on this idea that you ultimately define who you are as a person; you can’t look to other people, you can only find it,” Burch said.
Burch said her piece was composed of five dancers and utilized a contemporary style of dance. The dancers began by mirroring each other. By the end, each dancer was able to express their emotions and personality.
Senior Kelcee Gabbard from Berea, Kentucky, is a double major in computer science and dance. She said the computer science major directly inspired the piece she choreographed.
“My piece is about how a computer works together and the operating system,” Gabbard said. “It basically goes through the boot-up process and then a couple other processes. ”
For those who want to participate in “The Dance Project,” Gabbard said to prepare to put in some hard work.
“Just go for it and give it your all,” Gabbard said. “Don’t go into ‘The Dance Project’ and do it half-heartedly; be ready to put a lot of time and effort into it.”
