Tom's Life Bits

Click here for Hollins part 1 program (Part 1 of the program also includes Part 2)

Tom's synopsis of Hollins Dancing

The first piece was titled Speaking Body. A Chinese girl wiggled her fingers while the camera picked up her motions and played them on a screen behind her. This was pretty poor - I could choreograph and present this in 15 minutes. Supposedly these are thesis projects that took one year to construct. :In the Folds“ involved a large group of dancers doing spasmodic movements. One dancer falls and lies prone while the others gather round and “resuscitate” her. There again and then had two dancers in Risky Business outfits. white button down shirt over a dance costume. It started with a well made up woman in business skirt and top reciting poetry and doing poses. Then she gets rid of the business suit and puts on a white shirt to match the other girl. They do dance together from rock to modern. “Fraud is the New Black” started with a war protest poster then was a hip hop piece. Both girls wore red nighties as short dresses to dance. I liked it. Invisible Threads was a large group well choreographed that did actual dance and wore colorful costumes. The group dances ensemble then in twos, threes and fours. This was good dancing. The final piece was “Gotta Go”, a well done number danced in hospital gowns. The girls started carrying butterflies and daisies, enjoying life. They next sat in chairs feigning to smoke and cough. In the end they die - I liked the crawling and shaking worrying about going to the grave. The choreographer wore a long mans coat and cane and challenged the audience if they knew when their time was up. For the ending she put down the flowers, the cane and removed the coat wearing nothing at all and laid down curled up on the stage floor.

ADF-Hollins students to present dance 'thesis'

By Susan Broili : The Herald-Sun sbroili@heraldsun.com Jul 20, 2006 : 2:47 pm ET

DURHAM – Audiences here will see the first results of the American Dance Festival and Hollins University partnership in a Master of Fine Arts program begun last year.

In free, public performances at 8 p.m. today and Saturday, audiences will see a total of 13 dances that the first class of MFA students created over a year's time as their thesis project.

Since degree candidates represent a mix between young students and dance professionals, the choreographers presenting work have a wide range of experience in the dance field.

For instance, Neta Pulvermacher, a veteran dance maker who has her own company (the Neta Dance Company) and teaches at the ADF, is in the MFA program on a low-residency tract geared for dance professionals. Her dance, “Gotta Go,” deals with mortality, including her own mother's death, and was also inspired by Mary Roach's “Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers,” ADF dean Donna Faye Burchfield said.

Burchfield, also a professor of dance at Hollins University, coordinates the joint MFA program.

Pulvernacher will present excerpts from her work-in-progress that premieres in New York next spring. She dedicates the dance to her mother, Naomi.

Other MFA participants are teachers at the ADF this summer: Sherone Price, formerly with the Durham-based African American Dance Ensemble, and Stafford Berry, currently with the same company; Brenda Daniels and Mark Haim. (Some of these candidates, like Haim, presented their work earlier in the festival).

These low-residency candidates get up to 12 hours of credit for their professional experience. The MFA requires 60 credits.

The first class also includes nine students on the one-year track, who spend a year on the Hollins' campus in Roanoke, Va.

Other MFA candidates presenting work this weekend include Kerry Stichweh, Kristin O'Neal and Jung-Eun Kim, from Korea. Jung-Eun not only created the choreography but also made the animation that goes with her dance, “I Missed It,” Burchfield said.

O'Neal's dance, “Heeling Sole,” is inspired by family members, who worked in a shoe heel factory, and features a video of this factory.

Kerry's dance also features a video projection of images from Durham's tobacco history. Plans are to feature her dance with its large projection on the outside of Reynolds Industries Theater, perhaps during intermission if it's dark enough by then. If not, her dance will take place after the performances inside the theater both tonight and Saturday, Burchfield said.

“Students have the opportunity to immerse themselves in the ADF's modern dance heritage, which brings together artists and ideas from around the globe,” Burchfield said. “At the same time, they benefit from the intimate atmosphere of learning at Hollins. It's a complementary partnership that draws from the strengths of both institutions,” she said.

In the new MFA program, all students spend time at both Hollins University and the ADF's six-week festival, which they are required to attend for two summers. At the ADF, they attend all performances; work with a mentor, design their own course of study and attend graduate seminars.

The MFA students get to immerse themselves in dance at the ADF - - something that Burchfield has seen as a benefit to regular Hollins students in the past. “They went to the ADF and just kept getting better and better,” Burchfield said.

It's one thing to read about dance and see videotapes but actually seeing the real thing makes a difference, she added.

“Suddenly, they locate that history in dancing bodies. I think that seeing is believing. It changes them.” Burchfield said. “I wish that more people thought of the ADF as a living museum of dance.”

The presence of the professionals in the new MFA program “bumps up” the level of ADF classes in a way that's stimulating for other students, Burchfield said.

ADF director Charles Reinhart agrees.

“There is such an influx of talent and ideas that it affects not only the MFA program but the entire ADF,” Reinhart said.

And, not only the professionals, but all of the MFA students have an impact.

“Because they are so turned on by taking the MFA in this environment, it turns the environment on,” Reinhart said.

There could be other MFA partnerships in the ADF's future, he added.

“China wants to talk to us about an MFA program,” Reinhart said.

China now has 60 to 70 universities that offer undergraduate modern dance programs as an outgrowth of the ADF's 20-year involvement in that country to foster the study of modern dance, he added.

Shen Wei, a current rising star in the modern dance world, came out of that effort. Shen studied at the Guangdong Dance Academy, where he became a founding member of the Guangdong Modern Dance Company, China's first modern dance troupe.

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WHAT: The American Dance Festival and Hollins University present performances by MFA candidates.

WHEN: 8 p.m. today and Saturday.

WHERE: Reynolds Industries Theater in Duke University's Bryan Center.

COST: Free and open to the public.

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ADF/Hollins University's MFA Performance Schedule

(schedule is subject to change)

Today

“Speaking Body” by Kaco Kam

“Invisible Threads” by Sherone Price

“There Again, and Then” by Dawn Springer

“Fraud is the New Black” by Regina Rocke

“In the Folds” by Christine Cali

“Gotta Go” by Neta Pulvermacher

Saturday

“Warp and Needles” by Abby Yager

“Homeland Security” by Stafford Berry

“Heeling Sole” by Kristin O'Neal

“I Missed It” by Jung-Eun Kim

“Progressions” by Katie Dorn

“Good Fun! – Brought to You by Klean” by Jennifer McGinn