Spotlight on... Adriane Medina '08

Author: Melissa Marshall

Adriane Medina's '08 moments at Middlebury are not just wounded on a string, they are coming down to the wire. While lacking modern dance experience when she first arrived on campus, the Florida has been an active participant in the dance troupe On Tap, translates her experience into teaching ballet and crafted her movement with the Dance Company of Middlebury last summer. She took a hot minute from her dizzying schedule to speak with The Campus about her upcoming senior work.

The Middlebury Campus: When did you first conceive of the idea for you senior project?

Adriane Medina: When I first envisioned creating a senior dance concert, I remembered a dream I once heard. A dance professor said to a young modern dancer, "You're just riding on the coattails of all the dancers who have come before you!" This imagined conversation resonated strongly with me. I began to think about the origin of my movement pathways. I consider myself extremely fortunate to have worked with so many of my fellow students in the Dance Program as they developed their own work. Embodying their movement has affected and transformed my own dancing in ways that I never imagined. Having such wonderful peer role models pushed me to dance better, and encouraged me to assert my own distinctive dancing voice amidst all those who have come before.

MC: How do you feel that this - your final performance - embodies how you've grown as a dancer and your Middlebury experience as a whole?

AM: I came to Middlebury without any modern dance experience, and I had a difficult time breaking away from stricter ballet training into a more free-form type of dancing. The past four years, I've been working to find range in my dancing. My pieces in this concert explore that range of movement qualities.
For me, this concert is the integration of the main focuses of time at Middlebury - the Dance Program, elementary education and tap dancing. It is the embodiment of my liberal arts education. My solo "waiting time" is an exploration of learning - imagination and inquiry. In creating my group piece, I drew upon many of the skills that I've learned in my Teacher Education classes, especially toying with the balance of creating a product and/or exploring a process. The solo I've created in conjunction with Visiting Assistant Professor of Dance Tiffany Rhynard is a blending of worlds. It's a fusion of modern dance and the tap dancing that I've done with On Tap.

TC: What emotions and messages would you like the audience to take away from the performance?

AM: If 100 different people go and see a dance performance, there will be 100 different responses to the work. I only hope that the audience will find something in my work that resonates with them and that they will walk away from the performance thinking about what they just saw.

TC: Do you have plans to pursue dance professionally after graduation?

AM: This is by no means the end of my dance career! I never really thought that I would try to dance professionally, but especially after my work with the Dance Company of Middlebury this past year, I simply can't imagine my life without dance as a main component. That being said, after graduation, I'm looking forward to joining Tiffany Rhynard's new dance company, Big Action Performance Ensemble (The Big A.P.E.)!

The Department of Theatre and Dance will present "Moments on a String: The Senior Dance Work of Adriane Medina '08 & Friends" on April 25-26, 2008 at 8:00 P.M in the Mahaney Center for the Arts Dance Theatre.