Choreographers Explore a Variety of Influences: Expanding Horizons through Fusion of Dance Styles
Performance Nov. 16-18 displays talents of 12 student choreographers, with more than 60 dancersBy: Molly Layden '24 Thursday, October 26, 2023 02:38 PM
This fall Muhlenberg College dancers have the unique opportunity to spearhead their own choreographic endeavors, under the guidance of dance professor Robyn Watson.
“I am a big fan of giving the choreographers the space to have confidence in their process,” Watson says, "deciding what they want and how they’re going to approach it, learning how to run an audition, learning how to transition from the rehearsal space to the stage.”
Twice a week, the choreographers come together in Watson’s advanced dance composition course to compare notes and support each other's efforts. The culmination of this work will be presented in this season’s Reset: New Dances, performed in the college’s Baker Theatre, Nov. 16-18.
Watson emphasizes that each choreographer is unique in their process. Their works will explore a variety of themes, many coming from personal narratives, identities, and artistic inspirations. Others come from concepts that spark interest, such as audience etiquette.
“There is a lot of variety in the tones of each piece,” Watson says, “I wanted to encourage the choreographers to create what they want to create and allow them the space to do that confidently.”
Choreographer Katrina Binks ’24 was inspired by the French Film À la folie... pas du tout (He loves me, He loves me not) and Bunny, a novel by Mona Awad. Using concepts from both, her fusion of contemporary, modern, and isolationist and gestural movement, paints a narrative around obsessive behaviors, using improvisation, experimentation, amalgamation and retrograde.
“My piece fuses the ideas of obsession and brainwashing, as one individual gets roped into the clutches of these overly possessive and monstrous beings,” says Binks. “I strive for things weird and strange in movement.”
In her piece, choreographer Lindsay Sherrick ’25 uses visual inspiration, particularly surrealist art and the work of Richard Avedon, to inspire her process. She uses this to create movement that resonates with her and embodies her specific experiences.
“I have taken my own words, as well as random phrases and things people have said to me, to shape my piece,” Sherrick says. “All of these things somehow just capture how I feel. It’s a great mix of absurd and mundane.”
Choreographer AnnaMaria Fernandez ’24 derives influence from her experiences as an Afro-Latina in predominantly white spaces. Her work is inspired by the character Max in Where the Wild Things Are.
“Max is consistently sent to his room, where he creates his own escape for him to feel big emotion — to be wild,” Fernandez says. “This mirrors my experience as a Black woman here. My piece explores the expression of one's own cultural identity under white rules.”
In her modern and contemporary ballet fusion, choreographer Jane Carney ’24 narrates her reinvigoration for the form of ballet, initiated by Saint-Saëns' The Swan, a piece of music she re-discovered this summer while cleaning her room.
“I became paralyzed, sitting on my bed, as I listened to it I recalled the moment I fell in love with ballet,” Carney says. “This piece is about that. Not the day I fell in love with ballet, but the day I remembered I fell in love with it.”
Other featured choreographers include Gianna Carnevalino ’23, Marissa Haluch ’23, Gnama Hartney ’24, Danya Helperin ’25, Kerry Kauffman ’24, Dani Medvedovski ’24, Alyssa Miles ’25, and Leanna Niesen ’24. Ellie Dean ’26 serves as the associate artistic director. Paul E. Theisen Jr. designs lights, and Rebecca Lustig, Katie Harris ’24, and Gabrielle McCabe ’24 design costumes.
Reset: New Dances runs Nov. 16-18 in the Baker Theatre, Trexler Pavilion for Theatre & Dance, Muhlenberg College, 2400 Chew St., Allentown.
Performances are Nov. 16-18: Thursday and Friday at 8 p.m., and Saturday at 2 and 8 p.m. Tickets are $15 for adults; $8 for patrons 17 and under; and $8 for students, faculty and staff of all LVAIC colleges.
Tickets and information are available at 484-664-3333 or muhlenberg.edu/dance.
About the Muhlenberg College Theatre & Dance Department
Muhlenberg offers Bachelor of Arts degrees in theatre and dance. The Princeton Review ranked Muhlenberg’s theatre program in the top twelve in the nation for eight years in a row, and Fiske Guide to Colleges lists both the theatre and dance programs among the top small college programs in the United States. Muhlenberg is one of only eight colleges to be listed in Fiske for both theatre and dance.
About Muhlenberg College
Founded in 1848, Muhlenberg is a highly selective, private liberal arts college offering baccalaureate and graduate programs. With an enrollment of nearly 2,000 students, Muhlenberg College is dedicated to shaping creative, compassionate, collaborative leaders through rigorous academic programs in the arts, humanities, natural sciences and social sciences; selected preprofessional programs, including accounting, business, education and public health; and progressive workforce-focused post-baccalaureate certificates and master’s degrees. Located in Allentown, Pennsylvania, approximately 90 miles west of New York City, Muhlenberg is a member of the Centennial Conference, competing in 23 varsity sports. Muhlenberg is affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
