Performance to celebrate traditional modern dance

Gliding on and off stage, feet barely touching the smooth black stage floor, contemporary dance majors from the School of Health, Physical Education, and Recreation rehearsed “Aureole” Wednesday night for this weekend’s performance, “From Past to Present: The Tradition of Modern Dance.” \nAudiences can experience a fusion of traditional and contemporary modern dance styles at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday in the Ruth N. Halls Theater. At 6:45 p.m. Friday, a “pre-concert talk” will be given in the Grand Hall of the Neal Marshall Black Cultural Center.\nWaiting for her number with a fresh coat of makeup and her hair neatly tied back, junior Allison Zobel chatted with other dancers before the dress rehearsal. \n“I think with the history pieces, it’s hard to replicate what’s already been widely reviewed,” she said, watching the dancers in white leotards stretch in preparation for the famed Paul Taylor piece, “Aureole.” \nPaired with the polite classical music, Taylor’s elegant choreography “reflects the sheer beauty and joy of dance,” said Elizabeth Shea, Coordinator of the IU Contemporary Dance Program in the HPER School. \nShea said the first half of the show would be dedicated to traditional modern dance styles that originated in the 1940s until the 1960s. However, not all of the traditional pieces are as tranquil and elegant as the Taylor piece.\nIn the piece “3 Epitaphs,” also by Taylor, the dancers wear all black and perform to a New Orleans funeral dirge. \nIt’s not pretty, it’s “very humorous,” she said. \nThe following performances in the first half are a little more somber. One piece focuses on isolation in a big city and another piece reflects pain, Shea said. \n “The first act is all historical pieces that are important in modern dance history,” said junior dancer Esther Widlanski.\nAfter intermission, the show changes to choreography by IU staff. Shea herself choreographed “The Nature of Human” with accompaniment from Jeffrey Hass, professor of composition in the IU Jacobs School of Music.\nBesides the sophisticated routines, Shea said the show will be exceptional because of the lighting and video projection from Robert Shakespeare, professor of lighting design in the Department of Theatre \nand Drama. \n“It’s pretty intense,” said freshman Elaine Buck, an understudy for the performance. \nShe said the dancers’ movements are projected throughout the routine and there are different effects that ripple and shadow the various images.\nShea said many modern dance performances are beginning to incorporate more and more multimedia into their shows. Special software has even been designed to enhance modern dance performances to help employ special lighting and other visual effects. \nHPER’s Gwendolyn Hamm, Emmy Award winning-choreographer George Pinney, professor in the Department of Theatre and Drama, and Iris Rosa, director of the African American Dance Co. and professor of African American and African Diaspora Studies, will also present revised works. \nRosa’s piece is “really nice work” about immigration from the Dominican Republic, Shea said. \nWith such a wide range of pieces from the traditional to the contemporary, covering almost 100 years of modern dance styles, Shea said that current modern dance is exceptionally diverse with the ability to pull from both eras. \nThe show should be “very edgy,” she said. \n“It’s something different and new to do on a Friday or Saturday night,” Zobel said.