Ana Alexander/ Winonan
“Welcome to tech rehearsal,” Gretchen Cohenour, the director of Dancescape, said as she gathered the dancers and crew to go over some notes before they began their first tech rehearsal this year.
Dancers were seated in the Vivian R. Fusillo Main State Theatre, dressed in a variety of costumes; several wore neon crop tops and furry boots, others were in neutral shorts and long sleeved shirts and some were in all black.
Choreographers have been working on the show since Dancescape last year, conceptualizing their different ideas for each piece. Auditions were held in September, and since then, the twenty-seven dancers have met one to two times a week to rehearse.
“I’m just really impressed with the courage and resilience of all the choreographers. There have been ups and downs, as there always are in life and in art,” Cohenour said, as she began wrapping up, giving her final encouragements to everyone before they began their run through. “The dances are just getting stronger and stronger and stronger, and it’s just been a beautiful experience to watch it aesthetically grow.”
And with that, rehearsal began. The first number included four dancers bouncing along to an electronic beat, dressed in neon clothing of all colors and patterns. The music for the piece places the audience on a plane. A voice announces that she is the captain and will be attempting a crash landing. Throughout the song, the voice continues to update the audience on the progress of the landing.
“That piece is a response to the idea of our age, as humans, how we’ve just been burning. We’re ‘going down,’ we’re ‘about to attempt a crash landing,’ what have we done to the earth? Sometimes we’re just awake when it comes to survival, and sometimes we’re just ignoring it,” Cohenour comments on the piece, which is titled “Green Overboard.”
The next piece slowed down with a violin piece to which the dancers moved in fluid and graceful motions across the stage before ending the piece in a united pose facing away from the audience.
Several pieces included the addition of props. In one piece, the dancers had chains attached from their wrists to their ankles, yet managed to move nimbly across the stage.
Another dance required all of the lights off, as dancers moved around the stage with glowing and sparkling whips they artfully twirled around. A second group of dancers entered, which carried shining levitation wands they whirled around themselves. The piece played with the movement of light and ended with the silhouette of a single dancer, framed by the sparkling light of all of the whips held behind them.
Each piece offered something unique. With every new dance on stage, a new style of dance and vibe was conveyed. Sidney Junk, Dancescape’s stage manager, is excited for the audience to experience the diversity of the show.
“The choreographers have all done something different. I’m just excited for them to see the versatility of the dance department,” Junk commented.
Cohenour expressed similar feelings about the show. “I look at each dance as its own world. It’s a pretty eclectic show, and that’s the benefit of dance as an art form. It’s pretty abstract, but it’s also very universal.”
With the variety of different choreography comes a range of different emotions and themes expressed by the dancers.
“We want students to find a way to express their voices,” Cohenour said.
Each unique piece and the messages they are expressing will offer individuals in the audience a different experience.
“There really is something for everyone,” Cohenour said.
