Dance showcase ‘nails’ success

With music and dance, the students of the Student Composer Association and the IU Contemporary Dance program swept across the stage Friday at the John Waldron Arts Center Auditorium. The show, titled “Hammer and Nail: An Evening of Music and Dance,” presented a quirky but rather impressive collaboration between the musicians and dancers.\nAfter the success of last year’s show, the Student Composer Association, which has put on the show for several years, decided to add the Contemporary Dance Program once again. It performed to an overcrowded auditorium in which Willkie Auditorium’s or Whittenberger Auditorium’s stage might have been a better fit.\nPieces such as “Sneaky Exponential” show the hard work and dedication the performers have invested. The contemporary jazzlike piece included the profound drumming of Alex Wadner and muted trumpet of Dan Coleman that added to what choreographer Beth Rodriguez calls “lovely quirkiness.”\nThe best piece of the night was “Interactions,” choreographed by Laura Spicuzza and composed by Ashleigh Nero. The piece is set in a park and displays the relationship and interactions between people, whether they are lovers, friends or strangers. The movement capitalized the theme with the fluidity and facial expressions unlike any other piece. \nFreshman Shayla Hines, a recording-arts major, found the performance to be expressive but not always with the music, which created a sense of confusion. This is expressed in “Inquiry into Discord,” composed by Matthew Peterson and choreographed by Lauren Weber. \n“Following our broader concept of a conflict between contact/isolation which is manifested in Lauren’s powerful choreography, the music traces ... a struggle as it is removed from tonal ‘connected’ context of a Mozart quotation to jarring and gestic cries of dissonance, uncertainty and isolation,” Peterson said.\nThe stresses and streaks of the string section were not matched by the dancer’s movement, which is more “floetic” in its presentation. \nThe show will definitely bring a larger crowd as it progresses throughout the years. The growth of the program is inevitable as it continues to bring a new meaning to music through collaborative dance expression.