Illinois State University School of Theatre, Dance, and Film will wrap up the fall 2024 semester with the Fall Dance Concert, Fusion, with artistic direction from Darby Wilde. The concert will consist of five unique pieces, featuring choreography from Jacob Henss, Greg Merriman, Laina Reese, Darby Wilde, and guest artist Alex Hlavaty.
Henss’s piece titled “The Resonant Between” is a contemporary dance mildly inspired by dance theatre, which according to Henss is a “clear hybridization of theatre and dance in culmination with other productional elements such as sets and costumes.” While the dance has a beginning, middle, and end, the narrative is not what pushes the dance style. Instead, the driving force is movement. Henss is particularly interested in how something can be expressed through movement and “how abstraction and experimentalism can be a conduit for thinking and feeling.” The dance strives to express the immense feeling of discovering something new.
Merriman’s piece is titled “Excerpts from the Ballet Napoli,” which is re-staging the classical ballet that was originally choreographed by August Bournoville. This re-staging is also inspired by a version of the ballet that Merriman learned from William Martin-Viscount. According to Merriman, the most challenging part of the rehearsal process was teaching the “Bournonille” classical ballet style, which he said is very different than the style of classical ballet that his dancers usually practice. However, Merriman said that he enjoyed exposing his dancers to this timeless classic as it is one he has danced many times and that allows his students to be well-rounded dancers with many different styles in their repertoire.
Reese’s piece titled “sister spirit” was choreographed in dedication to Reese’s late cousin, Natalie Lauren White, who passed away suddenly in August of this year. When asked how this influenced her creative process, Reese, said, “The creative process of the work instantly became therapeutic in finding a means to express my anger, grief, and confusion through movement.” She went on to say that the piece is not sad or about death but instead is reflective and representative in the ways spirits live within and around us. The piece is influenced by African diasporic folklore, which believes life is circular and continuous, and each of the all-female cast represents individual parts of the sisterhood-village that keeps the spirits alive.
Wilde’s piece is titled “Noise” and was choreographed in collaboration with the dancers. The piece was inspired by the experience that both Wilde and her students encountered of having “too many tabs open” in their brains at the same time. “The mental noise of trying to deal with so many things at once can be overwhelming,” said Wilde, “This was my inspiration.” According to Wilde, the athletic movement needs to be fully embodied to convey the “noisy” mind physically. The dancers were asked to think about how this feels in their own experience and make it part of the movement. When asked about the collaboration process with her dancers, Wilde said, “My dancers help guide the work by their willingness to invest and experiment.” The dancers were also asked to create movement phrases of their own that were incorporated into the dance.
Hlavaty—the dance program’s fall 2024 guest artist in residence—is a dance artist with Eisenhower Dance Detroit (EDD). He graduated with a B.F.A. in dance from Western Michigan University in 2015 and has been with EDD for 10 seasons. During his weeklong residency from September 29 to October 5, Hlavaty taught five master classes and also set a dance work on Illinois State University students each evening. His choreographed piece titled “At The Forefront” was choreographed in collaboration with the dancers. According to Hlavaty, he drew inspiration for this work from an idea that he had pondered often: “how people see me compared to how I see myself.” He has become more aware of how his actions can be perceived differently from person to person and is diving into this world of perception by “using clothing layers and shedding pieces to mimic a sense of letting go of expectations.” Hlavaty greatly enjoyed sharing his creative process with the dancers. His process emerges from using dancers in the space, and he said that all the dancers quickly immersed themselves in the framework of his movement creation. Hlavaty said that, as a choreographer, he has to put trust in the dancers in order to bring light to his ideas and every dancer took good care of his movements and storytelling.
Fusion will be performed in the Center for the Performing Arts Theatre on November 14-16 at 7:30 p.m. and on November 16-17 at 2 p.m. The performance run time is approximately one hour with no intermission.
Tickets can be purchased in person at the Center for the Performing Arts Box Office on the campus of Illinois State University, by calling (309) 438-2535, or on the box office website.
If you need accommodation to fully participate in this program, please contact the Center for the Performing Arts Box Office at (309) 438-2535. Please allow sufficient time to arrange the accommodation.
