Dancers move to a different beat
By Julie Hofler
Cavalier Daily Associate Editor
It's not an ordinary ballet dance. Without pointe shoes or the melodies or Swan Lake, students in ARTS/SWAG 207, Dance Composition in Art, will move to a different beat with an improvisational dance performance tomorrow night for the start of the Virginia Fringe Festival.
"We don't exactly know what we'll be doing," said Sage Blaska, the instructor of the class. "Improvisation will never be the same twice."
Just a short 'Hoo Bus ride away, the free performance will be held at 8 p.m. at the Frank Ix building at Monticello Avenue and Second Street, two blocks from the Downtown Mall.
The Fringe Festival, a new three-week exhibition supplementing the 14th annual Virginia Film Festival, will also include theater, poetry and music performances addressing the theme of the film festival, "Masquerades."
Blaska said the students dancing in Friday's performance come from various backgrounds and levels of dance technique.
"It's a potpourri of people from all over," she said, adding that three out of the nine members of her all-female class have no previous dance experience.
Although the University offers beginning ballet, tap and jazz dance classes through the physical education department, the ARTS/SWAG class provides a completely different dance experience.
"It's not about technique," Blaska said. "It's for people interested in moving."
The class has taken several improvisational dance "field trips" this semester to inspirational spaces like the gardens behind the Lawn and the University Art Museum. They also have consulted with the introductory sculpture and printmaking students for imagery ideas for their dances based on the masquerade theme.
But viewers expecting a normal dance performance set to music should be warned.
"No music has been used at all this semester," Blaska said. "It has been the challenge, but also the reward."
Instead, dancers improvise based on spontaneous words, phrases, images or tunes and react through the movement of their bodies.
Blaska, who studied ballet for most of her life, was first exposed to the unbridled creativity of improvisational dance during her freshman year of college. She described it as "completely wacky" and "the neatest thing since peanut butter and jelly swirled in a jar."
"I like the notion of creating something that is not so structured" as the rest of Western culture, she said.
Read More
Taking a break at Tangerines Kitchen
By Charley Thomas | 19 hours agoWhat the restaurant somewhat lacks in ambiance, it compensates for in tasty dishes and prompt service.
Virginia Policy Lab — a hub for student-led policy action
By Katherine Haden | December 9, 2024Students propose their own projects and collaborate with other members to research their issues of interest, brainstorm solutions and write policy proposals.
Perfecting the subtle art of the ‘sexile’
By Val Vixen | December 7, 2024Approach this sacred college ritual with a newfound confidence.
