FIVE COLLEGE DANce DepARTMENT NEWSLetteR 2012–2013 Editor: Jim Coleman (FCDD Chair) Contributor: Joanna Faraby Walker (FCDD) “CONNECT TO THE MADNESS INSIDE YOU” —OHAD NAHARIN Designer: Robyn Rodman, Five Colleges, Incorporated THE OHAD NAHARIN PROJECT or a very long week late last August, 32 Five College dancers returned to campus early to “I don’t sleep much — it’s a known fact that sleep is engage in a grueling, revelatory dance experi- required more for the brain than the body because the ence, practicing Gaga technique and learning brain needs sleep to dream. But I dream all the time. I FOhad Naharin’s powerful, minimalist master-piece Echad dream when I’m awake, when I create work, with my College PAID Hampshire U.S. Postage Nonprofit Org Nonprofit Mi Yodea. eyes open. So who needs sleep?” The dancers began each day with Gaga, a wildly ex- — Ohad Naharin ploratory, image-based movement technique devel- oped by Naharin for his Israel-based Batsheva Dance ing my physical limits. The exercises also allowed me Company. “What today is very fundamental to Gaga is to find the pleasure in moving . It reminded me of the ability to articulate the scope of sensations and the why I dance.” small details, the small gestures, the attention to detail”, Afternoons involved learning the 13 short phrases — says Naharin. Each morning, Ariel Freedman (past com- all beginning from and returning to a seated position in a pany member and stager for this project) led the danc- chair—whose driving repetition gives the piece its mes- ers through a liberating, improvisational maze of move- merizing, incantatory power. The movement demands ment images: “decorate yourself inside and out . there an unpredictable mix of explosive abandon, subtle in- are moons under your toes . find a tremor that turns flection and exacting rhythmic precision. The final per- into a memory . as you walk, leave your skin behind . formances were praised for their exhilarating, dramatic . .” Hampshire College cast member Ailey Picasso-Hobin and believable human catharsis. As Mount Holyoke writes, “The process allowed me to listen to my body, to College cast member Poorna Swami summed up, the explore how it works. It also helped illuminate my pat- piece, “stood testament to the fact that intense feeling terns and push me outside of my comfort zone, stretch- can be evoked in dance without the use of narrative.” n (413) 549-3600 893 West Street893 Amherst, MA 01002 MA Amherst, www.fivecolleges.edu/dance Five College Dance Department Dance Building, College Hampshire Dance JIM COLEMAn (BOTH PHOTOS) Top: Echad Mi Yodea opening Bottom: Echad Mi Yodea audition 1 FCDD StUDENT StepheN PetRONIO: “CHOREOGRAPHY AND ALUM AND THE THINKING DANCER” NeWS ILVER Kate Abernethy (MHC S ’08) lives in Philadelphia ARAH and works for the Cultural S Data Project, an online tool that strengthens arts and cultural organiza- tions. She continues to dance and choreograph, and is working with Me- lissa Rodis (AC ’08) on a piece for this year’s Phila- delphia Fringe Festival. Rose Abramoff (AC KARAS ATT M ’09) made a piece for heynow dance, a group that presents art in home spaces. She danced in Luminarium Dance Company’s Mythos:Pathos, and is working toward her PhD in forest ecology at Boston University. Aretha Aoki (SC MFA ’08) has shown work at Danspace Project, Move- ment Research, Center for Performance Research (CPR), CATCH and New York Live Arts (2011/12 Nationally renowned choreographer — and Hampshire College alumnus — Stephen Petronio, launched the FCDD’s new annual Institute for Choreography Fresh Tracks Artist) as well and the Creative Process, with a week-long January-term residency entitled “Choreography and the Thinking Dancer.” Petronio is regarded as one of the as other places and spaces most cutting-edge American contemporary choreographers and has maintained a national and international presence with his company, Stephen Petronio in NYC, MA, Vancouver and Montreal. Aretha is Dance, for over 25 years. Rosalyn Sulcas of The New York Times writes, “He is one of the few contemporary dance makers who have created an instantly currently in rehearsal with recognizable style…fresh and unpredictable…infused with emotional texture and wit . jarring and just right.” The Institute/residency was directed Levi Gonzalez and touring by FCDD faculty member Constance Valis Hill, and included daily technique classes, repertory workshops and two lecture/film screenings with Petronio Niicugni by Emily Johnson. reflecting on key works, creative collaborations and the driving forces behind his dance making. n Christiana Axelsen (MHC ’03) collaborated “I make exactly what with theater artist Seth I want. My tastes are Powers on Money Thinks JIM COLEMAN perversely compli- I’m Dead at Mabou Mines; cated, and I have to toured to Vancouver and Chicago with zoe|juniper; be satisfied with the received a grant from the stage picture, which Brooklyn Arts Council to is usually much more present her dance theater complicated than piece Tundra at the Invis- what people want to ible Dog Art Center in see. I have to ride the Brooklyn; and started a new project with Michou line of what is going Szabo/The Mill. to sink me or not, in terms of density, and Katie Bangs (MHC ’11) I generally love to go graduated with her MA in psychology from MHC. too far.” She now heads to Athens, GA to begin a PhD pro- — Stephen Petronio gram in educational psy- Stephen Petronio teaching class chology and instructional technology with a focus in school psychology. Pele Bauch (HC ’96) received a Community COLLeeN THOMAS IN RESIDENce Arts Fund grant through JIM COLEMAN NYC-based choreographer and performing artist Colleen the Brooklyn Arts Council for the creation and per- Thomas created a new ensemble work, Awry, on Smith formance of Gilded Mam- College and Five College dancers. The piece premiered moth, Bewildering Sea. on the Smith College Faculty Dance Concert in Novem- Christine Bennett (SC ber. Thomas began her professional career with the Mi- MFA ’96) is the Assistant ami Ballet and went on to work with renowned contem- Dance Director for the porary choreographers such as Donald Byrd/The Group, Office for the Arts Dance Bebe Miller Dance Company, Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Program at Harvard. A Dance Company, and The Kevin Wynn Collection, among highlight of her role is her others. She is currently on the faculty of Barnard College work with visiting artists. This past year she was and serves as artistic director for ColleenThomasDance, thrilled to engage artists which tours nationally and internationally. n John Jasperse, Pontus Lidberg, Andrea Miller, Awry by Colleen Thomas Josh Rhodes, Desmond Continued on page 3 2 • FIVE COLLEGE DANce DepARTMENT NEWSLetteR Richardson, Patrick Corbin and others to work with UMASS AND FCDD HOST the Harvard dancers. 2013 NeW ENGLAND ACDFA CONfeRENce Nicole Bindler (HC ’99) JIM COLEMAN performed new work in the DraftWork series at Danspace Project in NYC. She also performed in John Cage’s Songbooks, and produced and curated the Deborah Hay Solo Festival at thefidget space in Philadelphia. Nicole and artistic partner Gabrielle Revlock received funding for their new project The Dance Apoca- lypse. Nicole and life part- ner Curt Haworth taught an improvisation intensive in Buenos Aires, and at the Earthdance Moving Arts Lab in August. Mary Rose Blandino (HC ’12) spent the summer after graduation working stage crew at MassMOCA. In the fall, she began rehearsing with BodySto- ries: Teresa Fellion Dance in NYC. This culminated in a performance in a pedestrian walkway in Times Square. In October, she reprised the opening solo from her Division III at Judson Church at their JIM COLEMAN 450 dancers from 37 colleges event STUFFED. and universities descended Chani Bockwinkel (HC upon the UMass campus JIM COLEMAN ’11) performed in a collab- March 14–16 for The Rites of orative new work at the Spring: 2013 ACDFA New Eng- Foundry in Berkeley, CA. land Regional Conference, Rebeccah Bogue (SC co-hosted by UMass Dance ’08) presented her self- and the FCDD. Students and produced ballet À Tes Sou- faculty relished three days haits at the Ailey Citigroup packed with performances, Theater in April. master classes, and unique op- West African dance class with Sekou and Marilyn Sylla at the ACDFA New England Regional Conference Alison Bory (MHC ’97) portunities to meet and work completed her MFA and Conference director with peers from across New PhD in dance at UC River- Billbob Brown giving England. The conference was side and is now building opening remarks so named because the Joffrey the dance program at Davidson College in North Ballet was in town performing Nijinsky’s 100-year-old rev- SOMATIC INQUIRY AND THE Carolina from scratch. She olutionary ballet The Rite of Spring at the UMass Fine Arts continues her research in Center on the opening night of the conference, an event SOCIALLY CONSCIOUS BODY contemporary autobio- that ACDFA participants had the opportunity to attend. Hampshire College alumna Martha Eddy, RSMT, CMA, Ed.D., Founder and Director graphical performance Over the course of the conference, adjudicators Larry of the Moving On Center and The Center for Kinesthetic Education was in residence and occasionally makes Lavender, Professor of Dance at UNC-Greensboro; Kathy at Hampshire College and the FCDD in October, where she taught several master dance/performs, mostly with AGA Collaborative, Casey, Artistic Director of Montréal Danse; and dancer, classes and gave the annual fall FCDD lecture: “Somatic Inquiry and the Socially an experimental group choreographer and teacher Licia Perea offered feedback Conscious Body.” In her lecture, Eddy discussed her research and teaching in the formed just over a year on 48 dances choreographed mostly by students, but field of somatics and recent applications to fields such as early childhood education, ago.