Seniors dance the night away at the CFA

Author: Alex Hay

Julia Basso '04.5 and Kate Stamper '04.5 presented their collaborative senior work, "Transient Networks," Friday and Saturday nights in the CFA Dance Theatre, choreographing and performing in solos, duets and group pieces that aimed towards "integrating the themes of science, art, and the individual." Both Basso and Stamper are double Dance and Neuroscience majors. The theme of the performance stemmed from an interest in exploring the relationship between science and art, with a particular emphasis on the nervous system (the individual), -- a parallel theme to that explored by the Seeler Studio play presented this weekend, "Experiment with an Air Pump," which examined science, art and relationships.

Aside from the title of one work, "Apoptosis" (a genetically determined process of cell self-destruction that is marked by the fragmentation of nuclear DNA), space-age costuming which used panels of clear plastic to form skirts reminiscent of The Jetsons, or the bright white lighting and white costumes of the final dance which evoked a hospital or psychiatric ward, there was very little science evident in the performance. The dances themselves were characteristic of the modern dance produced at Middlebury's dance department, with the exception of a few delightful transgressions.

The opening dance, "Thrill Seekers," choreographed by Amy Chavasse, left one with that peculiarly post-modern feeling of confusion, where the brain seems locked in the question, "What am I watching?" To a twanging female country voice, Basso and Stamper ran into each other and fell down in repetitive frenzied confusion at complete odds with the music.

Three of the dances performed were repetitions from dances created for the fall dance concert., "Backlit Engagement," and "Apoptosis" were Stamper and Basso's group work developed over the fall semester. "Backlit," choreographed by Stamper, gave an impression of hectic urban life that continued the theme of frenzied running from the first dance. Basso's piece, "Apoptosis" had a dark, gothic feel that corresponded to its title of cell self-destruction. Basso's piece had especially good unison choreography, perhaps due to the relationship established between the dancers as they developed some of the choreography through improvisation workshops led by Basso.

Stamper performed two solos, one taken from the Fall Dance Concert and one new piece of choreography. "Take Me In," a delicate, intimate piece, proved capable of wrenching the heart with a gentle grip just as effectively at the second viewing as at the first. The music for the dance, a simple but powerful love song, "All I Want" by The Poozies, may be primarily responsible for that effect. The song seemed to fill the theatre, infusing the audience with soft melancholy, while Stamper's sharp, sudden motions set up a counterpoint to the music, perhaps illustrating the stabbing pain at the center of melancholy and longing. Stamper's new solo, "Temperature of 104O," was a complete contrast, as Stamper shimmied and shim-shammed to Ray Charles and Nat King Cole performing "Fever." Sexy and fun with more than a little swing dance inspiration, Stamper lacked only a black bowler hat to offset her bouncing red curls and little black dress.

Basso presented a new solo piece, "Lost and Found," that boasted more props than I've ever seen in a Dance Department production, including a carefully arranged chair, telephone, full-length mirror, piano bench, a stack of books, and a plastic baby doll. Upstage a vase was placed on a pedestal. Into this carefully constructed landscape - perhaps an attic of lost memories? - Basso staggered and fluttered in a tattered white dress, evoking a dream-like, hazy atmosphere somewhere between drunkenness and swooning. Although the props were left undisturbed for the most part, at one point Basso grabbed the vase off the pedestal, seeming to drop it as the downward momentum pulled her around the entire stage before finally settling to the ground, leaving Basso to crawl away from the encounter. The intertwining of dance and quotidian movements created an immediacy to the dance that held you gripped in the young woman's struggle.

The closing piece, "Two Sides of the Same Hat," fused the playful and serious elements of the concert in a beautiful and tender duet choreographed and performed by Basso and Stamper together. The two women seemed to escape to a separate, fragile world, dancing their delight in their surroundings and each other. But whenever the two drifted apart for too long, one would start to shake her hand uncontrollably, seeming to fall slowly into paranoia before the other came to her rescue, drawing her back into the peaceful unreality of their white-washed world. Or the other would sink deeper and deeper into despondency, sweeping the floor with limp fingers until the first pulled her back to joyful discovery. Perhaps the voice-overs of people speaking, discussing the senses and their role in human experience, added to the medical feel of the dance, as if the two were frolicking on the sunlit lawn of a psychiatric hospital.

The entire performance lasted only an hour, but was filled with intriguing new choreography that spanned a large spectrum from post-modern dysfunction to vaudeville hilarity and the theatrical use of props. Hopefully this performance was just the beginning of a trend to incorporate a broader range of dance into the Dance Department's productions, and maybe even to shed the long-standing fear of actually saying something in a dance.