University Theatre’s Young Choreographers’ Showcase opens this weekend, premiering new works created and performed by students in the School of Dance.
Since its founding in 1961, the OU School of Dance has provided young dancers with choreographic opportunities through programs like Young Choreographers’ Showcase.
Leslie Kraus, OU School of Dance assistant professor, and associate professor Glenn Edgerton determine the choreography that will be featured in Young Choreographers’ Showcase through an adjudication in the fall semester.
Students work with a cast of their peers to create and fine-tune their choreography to present a 75% completed work by the selection date.
This year, the 10 selected pieces range stylistically from ballet to hip hop. Kraus, director of the show, said that impactful works include “clear choreographic vision and committed dancing.”
“As an artist, having an idea and then making your idea a reality is a powerful experience — a process which is both vulnerable and brave,” Kraus said.
Chosen choreographers must finalize the choreography and coordinate additional elements at the hands of designers, stage managers, faculty and crew. Young Choreographers’ Showcase ramps up after students return from winter break, and there are only two weeks to make final adjustments before the show opens.
Delaney Gondo
Bringing queer stories to light, ballet performance junior Delaney Gondo presents "All the Stars in Heaven" at Young Choreographers’ Showcase.
Vitoria Correia in “All the Stars in Heaven,” choreographed by Delaney Gondo.
"All the Stars in Heaven" is a contemporary ballet that tells the story of two lovers. The piece highlights the ballerina couple’s connection while following the pair through the highs and lows of their relationship.
Gondo explained that binary gender roles in ballet determine the training one receives, such as female dancers being untrained to lift others. Gondo’s ballerinas challenge the binary roles by taking their female training and applying masculinity.
“I understand why companies are scared to try things like that, but I definitely dipped my toes into it,” Gondo said. “I think there’s something very interesting that happens when we try to engage in that.”
With it being her first time choreographing, Gondo said she was scared to present "All the Stars in Heaven" to OU faculty and other dancers but has only received positive responses.
“I hope they take away that two women doing ballet together is something worth talking about within the dance world but also just in life,” Gondo said. “It’s beautiful and interesting, and I hope they feel at ease and kind of warm and fuzzy.”
Riley Henderson
Returning to the Young Choreographers’ Showcase to choreograph for her second year, Riley Henderson, biology and modern dance performance senior, combines her two passions into one piece.
Dancers performing Riley Henderson's “Hysteria” during dress rehearsal for Young Choreographers' Showcase on Jan. 23.
Henderson’s modern contemporary piece, "Hysteria," represents the body’s reaction to neurotransmitters and hormones. Henderson plays with bodied representations of dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin, adrenaline, cortisol and GABA to create the relationships among her dancers on stage.
“When I’m learning about biological processes and stuff like that, I visualize it very moment-based,” Henderson said. “I like taking sort of bilateral concepts and using them as a source of inspiration for choreography.”
In Henderson’s choreography, each of the performers wear a color that is representative of common feelings that are a result of spikes in chemicals.
Henderson collaborated with lighting designer Emily Morris to highlight the distinctions between each neurotransmitter or hormone using the performers’ assigned colors. When two dancers meet on stage, their chemicals react and showcase a myriad of emotions through color.
“My favorite part of contemporary dance is hearing people’s different interpretations,” Henderson said. “I hope that it makes them think a little bit and be like ‘What’s going on?’”
Averie Warren
Averie Warren, sophomore modern performance major, presents his first choreographed piece, "Therefore I Am," this weekend, a piece inspired by his personal experiences.
“Therefore I Am" is a hip hop performance that features five dancers grappling with vulnerability. The piece is a spin-off of René Descartes’s famous “cogito, ergo sum” philosophy that translates into “I think, therefore I am,” and draws on Warren’s experiences with grief.
“I’m very attracted to how raw it made me feel,” Warren said. “In the moment, I didn’t feel that way, but after everything was settled, I liked the process of it. I liked how I came out as a different person. It was captivating. It was heavy. It was everything.”
Warren said that he feared “Therefore I Am” would be too different from the other performances, due to his thematic and musical choices. The piece is set to hip hop artists such as Tyler, the Creator, Kendrick Lamar and J. Cole to have an upbeat mood that supports its deeper message.
“It’s loud and bright — qualities of hip hop, as all the songs are hip hop and all by Black artists,” Warren said. “As a Black man, I felt like it was my job to highlight those attributes in hip hop because they are the foundation of who I am.”
As the closing performance of the showcase, Warren holds significant responsibility in the audience’s final thoughts of the show. He spoke about his goal of “Therefore I Am.”
Dancers performing Averie Warren's “Therefore I Am” during dress rehearsal on Jan. 23.
“I want people to feel,” Warren said. “The pieces that have left a mark on my heart or have been in my brain have all brought some kind of emotion out of me, and I hope that I can bring that out of people that come and watch my piece.”
Young Choreographers’ Showcase opens Thursday at 8 p.m. in the Elsie C. Brackett Theatre with additional showings at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are available online or by calling the Fine Arts Box Office at 405-325-4101.
This story was edited by Emma Blakley. Avery Avery copy edited this story.
