Student composers and dancers collaborate for performance

Three days before their biggest performance of the semester, student dancers were just as excited about rehearsing as performing.\nDance major and sophomore Maureen Maryanski said Monday night at her practice in the School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation building that she loves coming to class everyday. \n"I genuinely love to dance," she said. "I'd be just as happy dancing in a room all by myself, just me."\nDancers rehearsed with student choreographers who have worked all semester for the culminating concert 7 p.m. tonight at the John Waldron Arts Center. The concert, titled "Hammer and Nail" is free and open to the public, with a short reception following the performance.\nTraditionally a music-only concert, the event has allowed student composers, choreographers and dancers to collaborate.\nLiz Shea, coordinator for the IU Contemporary Dance Program, said this is the first year in which graduate students from the Jacobs School of Music have composed original music to go with the choreography created by the seven dance students taking the Choreographic Performance Project class.\n"It's very hard work," Shea said. "(Choreographers) are working on their piece everyday and probably rehearsing twice a week with lots of preparation between rehearsals."\nAmy Bilodeau, one of the choreographers who planned a piece for the concert, said she's happy with the collaboration. "It was really exciting having my own composer."\nWith several choreographers all working on modern dance pieces, students might worry about having two pieces too similar. \n"Somebody famous once said 'Don't worry about being original, just worry about being authentic,'" Bilodeau said. "The whole piece is never going to be like anybody else."\nBilodeau worked with composer and graduate student Dan Sumner on the piece, who said this is the first time he's working in collaboration with dancers like this.\n"She came to the table with a concept, and I bought onto that and tried to fulfill what she wanted to express with her dance," Sumner said. "I think it fit really well together."\nDancers are in one to three pieces each and coordinated rehearsal times with each choreographer for the concert. \n"It's a challenge," said dance major and junior Lauren Weber. "In the end it gets done, and it's really amazing and miraculous how it does."\nSenior Ryan Burruss of the Student Composers Association organized much of the musical aspect of the concert. He said music would include electronically composed tracks as well as clarinet, cello, piano, saxophone and other strings.\n"We tried to turn around and do it different this year," Burruss said. "We wanted to get it outside of the music school. Instead of connecting people with performers, we've connected them with other performing arts."\nShea encourages all students, even those not affiliated with the student choreographers, to attend the show.\n"It's really cool that this concert is totally student-run, and the level of performance is astounding for students," Shea said about the talent that will be showcased. "I think a lot of their peers would be pretty amazed at what they created. If you're a lover of dance and music, you should definitely come because the quality is really good in both"