Chaos, Collaboration Combine in Modern Dance Performance, ‘Tumult’
e Dance Company’s performance explores healing from isolation, incorporates local writers and dancers in one jarring performance
Rebecca Mennecke, photos by Andrea Paulseth |
From chaos comes collaboration, or at least when it comes to nonprofit dance studio e Dance Company’s upcoming performance of “Tumult.”
“It is somewhat jarring,” said choreographer Emily Emerson. “It is definitely abstract. I think that abstraction is really a key concept to choreographing modern dance. It’s not miming something. It is, ‘How do I take this word from the work, and how do I move that into my body?’”
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The collective healing process is really what I’m going for.
Emily Emerson
person organization
The performance includes four movements: Loneliness, Conflict, Fear, and Hope, which drive the choreography and how the themes are manifested in dance. Loneliness, for example, is expressed more internally and emotionally, whereas Conflict is more angular, fast-paced, and expansive, Emerson said.
“The collective healing process is really what I’m going for with it,” she said. “We are a community. Even if we are reflecting individually on our experience, I think there is a benefit to hearing about someone else’s experience relating to that. And it creates this sense of community and how you are a part of a group, how the individual and the group can heal together.”
Performances are slated for 7pm on Friday, Nov. 5, and Saturday, Nov. 6, at Forage on Barstow Street and are made possible through the Cultural Arts Grant, courtesy of Visit Eau Claire and the Wisconsin Arts Board.
Choreographing a representation of the past year was somewhat chaotic in of itself, Emerson said. “It has been a bigger project than I expected,” she said. “But that’s kind of the fun part, too. That’s kind of the magic of it. I’m really, truly excited.”
Dancers – including Katharine Rhoten, Reanna Madson, and Amanda Jane Wielichowski – will perform the first three movements solo, then join together for the final movement: Hope. There will be no music behind their movement – only the words of local writers Elan McCallum, Khaliesya Erwandy, Charlotte Gutzmer, and Elise Eystad, who each interpreted the themes of the show in a personal – yet relatable – way.
“It has a more physical sense to it, tumultuousness,” Emerson said. “I see movement with it, which I think lends itself well to dance.”
For more information about e Dance Company or to find more information about their upcoming performance of “Tumult,” visit their Facebook page at facebook.com/edancecompany.
