Featured Photo by MTSU Dance
Story by Annabelle Cranfill
On Sunday Middle Tenneseee State University’s Dance program showcased one of its many pieces for the Fall Dance Concert. Guest artist Colette Kerwick from NobleMotion Dance Company came to choreograph and teach students her routine. It entailed an intensive weekend. Dancers rehearsed for roughly 20 hours before showing it off.
Every semester MTSU Dance will work with at least one guest artist to set a piece for the dance concert. The program goes about choosing a guest artist by taking feedback from both faculty and students into consideration.
“It gives our students real sense of what the professional world is like in terms of audition process,” said Kimberly Holt, Instructor of Dance. “It gives them connections out in the real world.”
Kerwick worked with the dancers from Friday until the showing on Sunday. Kerwick first auditioned a group of dancers to narrow down her cast before rehearsal.
Kerwick drew inspiration for the piece from the idea of moths being drawn to a flame. Moths can represent transformation, change, growth and attraction. Kerwick thought about how that relates to human life.
“The work is really rooted in the continuous pull towards something. It kind of has a driving intensity to it,” Kerwick said.
The movement style was very grounded with an emphasis on partner work. It has a lot of weight shifts with quick shifts in energy. Kerwick looked at this throughout the audition process.
“It’s been very collaborative. She definitely has phrases that are already set and ready to go that she brought in, but also observing how we are in the moment. Heights, statures and how we move together to build contact-based choreography,” said Lily Hall, a senior dance major. “It’s very back and forth between prepared and more spontaneous movement.”
Faculty were also present during the weekend to prepare students.
“They get two and a half days to really understand what the choreographer is wanting, the aesthetic and the timing. It’s all just really fast-paced, which is good for them,” Holt said.
Both dancers and the choreographer worked tirelessly to prepare the piece for the informal showing within the short time they had. On Sunday, the dancers rehearsed for six hours before the showing.
Kerwick hopes that the students can walk away being able to live in the process and transformational journey. She hopes they continue to find the nuances that are true to themselves.
“The dancers here are really special and I think the faculty does an outstanding job,” Kerwick said. “I’m really impressed with how focused they are, how eager they are to learn and how quickly they pick up and then bring the material back better than they left it.”
Following that showing, the rehearsal process will be weekly with faculty stepping in as rehearsal director up until the concert. The Fall Dance Concert will be from Nov. 16 through Nov. 18.
MTSU Dance updates its Facebook and Instagram regularly with details and information.
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