What We Made

How does a dance department continue to make and perform works during a spring semester when all in-person public events are prohibited? How do makers maintain a consistent repertory experience when faced with the constant interruptions of quarantines, positive COVID tests, and other absences? Why should we continue to make work and who are we performing for? Well, we didn’t have all the answers to these questions asked by dance departments across the country during the performance year of COVID, but we made a lot of work. Stay tuned to our website to see the premiere performances on YouTube to be scheduled throughout this summer and watch past premieres on our Dance Gallery. 

Department of Dance faculty Momar Ndiaye and Mitchell Rose wondered what art project can reinforce community in the department in a time of forced isolation and decided to collaborate on a dance-film that features students, staff and faculty. But, when faced with the challenge of how to film 160 people maintaining social distance guidelines, they crafted a solution to film dancers individually on green screen and composite recordings together. Professor Ndiaye choreographed a duet that Professor Rose and his dance film students filmed on green screen with the entire department doing three seconds of movement that was all sewn together into a seamless dance-film duet. Professors Ndiaye and Rose hosted a webinar for the College of Arts and Sciences last spring where they discussed the project and showed pieces of the work in progress. The new work premiered on YouTube on June 25, 2021. 

 

Professor Daniel Roberts choreographed an outdoor filming project in collaboration with Instructional Technologist Chris Summers and Costume Designer Lindsay Simon. Seth Alexander wrote the music score. The work was filmed on the roof of the Ohio Union South parking garage to include a maximum amount of sky in the shots.

Professor Valarie Williams and University Libraries Curator of Dance Mara Frazier restaged sections of Anna Sokolow's Rooms, which was then filmed by Doug Carraway and will debut later this summer. 

Professor Nyama McCarthy-Brown directed the School Tour, which performed new and realized works, including Haunted, by Professor Susan Van Pelt Petry, Tethered Rays, by MFA Student Davianna Green, Emotes the Most, by Professor McCarthy-Brown, Comings and Goings, by Professor Valarie Williams, Typhoon, by Professor Daniel Roberts, and Scope, by Professor Momar Ndiaye. The performances were streamed live for local school students three times during the spring semester.

Professor Crystal Michelle Perkins choreographed a new work called Freedom Practices, which was filmed by MFA Dance Alumna Kathryn Logan in the Barnett Theatre. Professor Perkins offered an open rehearsal of the work to College Day participants on April 9.

Professor Susan Van Pelt Petry’s repertory class created Stories about Every Breath: A COVID Dance a work “about the virus, its ubiquitous power over the last year plus, and about the vaccine and the hope associated with it,” say Van Pelt Petry. “We wish for the dance to honor those who have died from the virus, those who have served on front-lines, and a reminder that we share the earth and the air through breath and movement. The energy of the dance traces the notion of spread, builds fortitude through the idea of community and vigorously celebrates the arc of life to death.” The class performed a repetitive cycle of dance on the Oval paths outside Thompson Library on April 23 and created a website with photos to document the project. The film will premiere on the project website this summer, followed by a YouTube watch party hosted by the department.  

Professor Momar Ndiaye made Spectrum and Lecturer Eddie Taketa created When It Works for their spring rep classes. Both works streamed live for the public on Zoom on April 10 at 7:30 p.m. Ndiaye’s piece featured choreographed onstage camera work by Alumna Kathryn Logan, with an off-stage angle by Chris Summers to offer multiple views.

Dayton Contemporary Dance Company Guest Artist Countess Winfrey choreographed Somewhere They Freed Themselves for her spring rep class, which was filmed the week of April 19, 2021 in the Barnett Theatre and premiered at the end of the Spring Informance on April 23.