Dance is often described as the expression of the mind and the soul through the body. The upcoming Strands of Motion dance performance weaves this concept with religious stories and messages to form what the drama department hopes will be an inspiring and intriguing performance.
Fourth-year College students Ashley Romanias and Jake Pasko choreographed two of the dances for this second-annual Fall Dance Concert, and also will dance in the performance.
Romanias’ dance is based on the description of Adam and Eve from Genesis, the first chapter of the Bible. This chapter describes the origins of sin and free will in Christian tradition, and the story’s complexity leads to an incredibly intricate translation to movement.
“As a Christian, the story of the fall [of man] is a foundation for what I believe,” Romanias said. “I believe that God created man as innocent, was angered by the fall and sent his son to pay the price for all sin. I decided to create this piece at a time when I was feeling very confused about things and weighed down by my own brokenness. As a result, it is a very difficult piece for me to dance.”
The depth Romanias has put into her dance is both extraordinary and daunting. Her piece promises to not only intrigue but also to touch and to inspire the audience. It is the understanding that “interpretation of art is subjective and free from the measures of correctness,” Romanias said, the understanding that art itself is individualistic in its power, that makes her piece accessible to each member of the audience, whom Romanias hopes can adapt her personal journey to their own understanding of the religious concept of the fall of man.
Pasko, however, takes a less traditional and less specific approach to motion. His dance centers around the individuality of religion. The ideas behind it range from “manipulations and statements misinterpreted for the sake of personal gain” to “struggles not known to the public but rather lying in the subconscious of the soul,” Pasko said. While Romanias’s choreography represents a personal belief and experience, Pasko’s seems to reach outward, to take an all-encompassing approach that each individual can fit into his or her own faith and understanding of religion.
“In the end, it comes down to realizing the skeletons in your closet, dealing with them and letting them go to let a new day begin,” Pasko said. “I believe religion is proof of humanity’s attempt to be good and ultimately proves our desire to be good to one another, but faith is a personal subject. You cannot tell a person what to believe.”
Of course, Pasko and Romanias are not the only choreographers who have dances in the show. Dance minors Lindsey Turner, Mary Saunders, Sarah Santos, Colleen Shendow and Kai Chang will also have pieces in the show, with styles ranging from flirtatious belly dancing choreographed by Santos to a juxtaposition of nightmares and slapstick humor in Chang’s piece.
Also featured in Strands of Motion is an aerial piece choreographed by Rose P. Beauchamp, adviser to the dance minor program. Aerial pieces can utilize, as in this case, fabric hung from the ceiling to aid motion.
“The piece is reminiscent of a mobile above a baby’s cradle,” publicity coordinator and dancer Russ Hicks said
The two other faculty contributors are faculty contributor Autumn Proctor, whose piece features “abstract ideas of industrial, environmental and mechanical systems,” and lecturer Keira Hart, whose piece “explores men and women and their searching, looking and wanting, and the wanting to be seen, wanting to be held and wanting to be loved,” according to the program’s press release.
In a world that is too often plagued by simplification, it is inspiring that Strands of Motion is able to convey the complexity of humanity in the language of movement.
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