Last night I listened to a couple arguing over steps to some dance they had invented and I started to think about dance. I tried to conceptualize popular dance, moving from waltz to shuffle to the electric slide. And popular dance – apart from some couple’s planned moves – has become increasingly unregimented.
This unregimented approach to dance is evident at the Keg, or any other bar with a dance floor. It’s a celebration of uncoordinated gyrations inspired by a beat and booze. This is fine, as dance is a communal activity and probably should be for the everyman. It’s important, however, not to lose sight of the other side of dance. That is, dance as an art form – expressionism performed by a select, talented few.
Enter Danceworks, an annual professional showcase of dance at Northwestern, under the artistic direction of Joseph Mills, who is also the director of NU’s dance program.
“A gallery of dance,” is how Mills describes Danceworks, pointing to the variety of the seven different pieces that make up the show. To emphasize the distinctions between the pieces, “the music ranges from traditional Irish to Peter Gabriel, from Mel Torme to the Who,” he says.
Each show is, as Mills says, “its own world with its own rules,” partly because a different faculty member or visiting expert directs each piece -including singer Rachel Yamagata, an alumna of the NU dance program.
The various directors have complete control over their pieces, from set design to costumes music to choreography. Each director attacks their, as Mills puts it, “individual entity” with different artistic objectives. Ranging from tap to modern to ballet, these directors are serious about their art.
And the dancers are serious about dancing, and they are damn good at it. Auditions for Danceworks are open to any student, and “about 25 percent are not dance majors,” Mills says.
Megan Ballard, a Communication sophomore, is a dance major and dances in one of Mills’ pieces. In her second year in Danceworks, she says she is drawn to the show because “it is a variety of dancers and new types of art.” Ballard is concerned with “what people expect from dance” and this is an opportunity for people to see “that it is not all thoughtless and flashy.”
Danceworks is, perhaps, the best campus opportunity to see dance at its finest on stage – a welcome break from seeing it at its most bumbling on a Monday night. Mills says that Danceworks is different from Fall- and Spring-Quarter dance showcases because of “the level of professional support.” Mills’ objective is a serious show that “represents the coursework and technique of the dance program.”
Mills also has a personal project in Danceworks – a recreation of a piece called Spawning, originally performed by the dance group Momix. Mills used to be in Momix and says he’s is excited about this recreation to the music of Peter Gabriel.
Understanding the range of dance in Danceworks brings further meaning to Mills’ description of the show as a gallery. He wants people to go into the show with the same mindset that one would adopt when visiting a museum – he wants the audience to gain an appreciation for an art form. Unlike a play or a musical, this is an opportunity to be exposed to the ambitions of seven very different artists, and, maybe, to open your eyes to higher forms of dancing.
If this is a gallery, Mills is the curator, and he has put together a fine collection – or, as he calls it, “a compilation collage” of dance that will inspire your next venture onto a dance floor.
Danceworks is playing at the Josephine Louis Theatre, 1949 Campus Dr., Feb. 24 to Feb. 26 and March 1 to March 4. Tickets cost $10 for students, $18 for senior citizens, faculty and staff and $25 for the public. Tickets are available online at www.tic.northwestern.edu.
Weinberg junior JC Longbottom is a PLAY writer. He can be reached at [email protected].
