Conditions: A Hopeful Reminder

     Dance studies at RWU began as usual in January of 2020.  The familiar format of classes, guest artists, Dance Theatre auditions and prospective student auditions helped set the rhythm of things to come.  Students were getting ready to perform in the Arts Alive! Series, Junior/Senior Show, The American College Dance Conference and Dance Theatre.  New works were being created by students, faculty and guest artists.  The studio was buzzing with classes and rehearsals that filled the schedule from day to night. 

     Spring Break hadn’t even arrived and it seemed like a semester’s worth of work had already been accomplished.  Jenny Rocha spent a week in residence teaching technique, choreographing a new work and rehearsing our students in preparation for the Arts Alive! Series.  The Tiffany Mills residency soon followed involving another week long teaching schedule, a new work and more rehearsals. In between residencies, student choreographers began their own rehearsals from which would emerge the creative visions of our soon-to-be graduates. Then, more rehearsals as faculty set work on the students who simultaneously were rehearsing and creating solo work for their student produced Junior/Senior Show.  We anticipated performances scheduled immediately upon returning from Spring Break starting with Junior/Senior Show, then off to Vermont to perform at the American College Dance Conference hosted by Middlebury College and the University of Vermont and finally Dance Theatre.  Our students were ready, but not before a well-deserved break!

     It goes without saying what comes next.  Who could have imagined a semester quite like this one?  The losses are many and the grief immeasurable especially for our seniors.  As learning transitioned to online and the loss of human contact intrinsic to dance and the arts is felt, we try to pick up the pieces, to be hopeful and to find inspiration.  It’s impossible to restore any sense of what this semester was supposed to look like.  Certainly Dance Theatre, the culmination of all our efforts is gone.  But, if we could turn back time for a moment, there might be a seed of inspiration, a hopeful reminder, a piece that remains. 

     There is a turning point for those who spend the beginning of their Junior year in London.  Students in the performing arts can make a choice to study abroad through the London Program and students of dance who choose to study abroad experience a unique learning opportunity that is truly life changing.  There is an undeniable transformation that occurs while they are there, and is noticeable upon their return.  They explore movement styles that appeal to them by working with a variety of dance instructors, absorb the culture of London by attending numerous music, theatre and dance performances, have a new work choreographed on them by a professional choreographer and collaborate in a dance on camera project.  Back home, our Dance Theatre audience will have the opportunity to experience both the new choreographic work and the dance on camera project created in London.

     Thursday April 30, 2020 marks opening night for Dance Theatre but this semester there won’t be an opening night. However, because of the London Program, there is a fragment of Dance Theatre that remains intact.  There is a remnant of inspiration and a hopeful reminder of past achievement.  What remains is an international collaboration that represents the creative work of our junior class and British filmmaker Gareth Fient.  By no means is this single work a substitute for the collective work and efforts of the entire department, but it is a reminder of prior accomplishments and a voice speaking of accomplishments to come.  Please take a moment and view Conditions and let this single work be an ambassador to the larger picture.  This condition we are experiencing is temporary and through it there is hope that we will dance again.