Students from Keene State College’s Theater and Dance (TAD) department made artistic concepts bloom during the annual Evening of Dance performance.
27 dancers took the stage at the Main Theater on April 13 to 15 performing four choreographed pieces by professor Cynthia McLaughlin, KSC faculty member Molly FletcherLynch, adjunct faculty Eleanor Goudie-Averill and guest choreographer Tatiana Desardouin.
The performance opened with McLaughlin’s revival of the first Evening of Dance piece she choreographed in 2014 titled “Tooth and Nail.” The piece was centered around a wolf figure and the feelings of anger and fear within the human mind.
“I felt like it would be interesting to revisit it and see how much I might approach some of it differently and I think it gives students a connection,” McLaughlin said. “The idea that they feel connected to other alumni and feel like something’s passed on… creates a continuum.”
McLaughlin added, “There’s something about the students now where they’re able to be a little more daring right away; they don’t need as much nudging. There’s a sense of wildness to a fair amount of the piece… I just felt like I was able to get a little more advanced in it.”
The next piece that followed was Goudie-Averill’s “only flesh knows only” which centered around history and asking questions regarding the choices we make in life. Following intermission was Fletcher-Lynch’s “The Weight of It” which focused on the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic drawn from the personal experiences of her dancers.
“The two other faculty works both are working with sort of a pacing and sensitivity that’s really inviting and has this spaciousness that allows you as a viewer to really enter in with the content they have,” McLaughlin said.
She added, “I think there’s a poignant to both of the works that I’m really loving and it feels like a contrast to my work and the concluding work which are a little more take hold of the audience and take them on a ride; they don’t really have a lot of time to think about what’s happening.”
Ending the evening was Desardouin’s “DE/BOX,” a piece about peer pressure and the feeling of being stuck within a box.
McLaughlin said that throughout rehearsals, she focused on bringing the concepts to life as cohesively as possible. “You start off with ideas, but through the collaborative process you often discover new things and new choreographic problems to solve,” McLaughlin said. McLaughlin said the dancers and crew all worked hard together to execute the performance to its full potential. “They’ve been working really long hours, really exerting themselves and challenging themselves,” McLaughlin said. “This is where the dance students and tech theater students really come together… And so coming together and witnessing their problem solving and professionalism and attention to details is always just really heartening.” As Evening of Dance approaches its 50th anniversary next year, McLaughlin mentioned the ideas she is already striding towards for the next performance.
“[Next year] also happens to be the hundredth anniversary of the debut of the premiere of Gershwin’s ‘Rhapsody in Blue’… we are collaborating with the music department,” McLaughlin said. “We’re going to have a full concert band, we’re going to have faculty and the Coordinator of Keyboard [Studies] Dr. Christina WrightIvanova as the soloist on piano… We’re also going to have an original score composed by faculty Dr. Heather Gilligan that she’s going to be creating in response to ‘Rhapsody in Blue.’”
McLaughlin added, “We’re calling it ‘Dressed in Blue,’ so the theme of blue is definitely going to be a big one.”
Nicole Dumont can be contacted at
ndumont@kscequinox.com
“The idea that they feel connected to other alumni and feel like something’s passed on… creates a continuum,”
CYNTHIA MCLAUGHLIN
EVENING OF DANCE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
