The UVA Department of Drama’s dance minor is still a new kid on campus, and the entirety of the program faculty is, essentially, Rose Pasquarello Beauchamp and Benoit, her husband. (Read Rose’s recent Open Studio here.) For Beauchamp’s dance students, any on-campus collaborations are necessarily with different types of performers, if not with altogether different means and media.
Last night, Beauchamp’s students performed six original pieces as part of "Structurally Sound," a collaboration with students in the engineering school. For the collaboration, engineering students built a structure that resembled a cul-de-sac of physical therapy bars; dancers propelled themselves towards, into and around their perimeter while wearing knee braces, orwithout the use of an arm. The collaboration was a warm-up of sorts for a spring residency by AXIS Dance Company, a group founded to integrate multiple types of phsyical ability into dance. More after the video:
AXIS Dance Company’s "Foregone"
The ambitions of the choreography were small-scale and simple, and results varied. But the evening was exciting, if mainly to see the directions pursued by young dancers of differing skill levels thrust into a choreography challenge that alternately disabled or enabled their own developing skills.
Justin Paxton’s "PhantomDREAM" admirably took on the muscular task of moving a body from floor to wheelchair, while his up-and-at-’em narration struggled to consider the emotional weight. Tessa Nunn’s "Mommy and Me" also took a narrative approach, but skipped narration in favor of a physical dialogue of acceptance between mother and child—you push me, I fall over, we giggle, etc.
Other pieces opted for abstraction with the same promising mix of results. Leaving aside natural abilities, I was impressed with the students’ abilities to come at a theme from all sides and provoke worthwhile questions with their work.
UVA Drama students participate in a similar collaborative challenge with e-school students. ("Inside the Box.") My question for you: What local art collaborations would you like to see in the next year?
