Wellness and Work-life Balance
This past weekend was the much-anticipated Fall Dance Concert, featuring the work of three student-choreographers, a guest choreographer, and two UCSB faculty members. The theme of the show was Double Exposure: revealing, relating, responding.
This past weekend was the much-anticipated Fall Dance Concert. UCSB's Theater & Dance students âexhibited their skills in three shows on Friday and Saturday featuring the work of three student-choreographers - Kaydee Black, Andrea Rhoades, and Holly Warner - who presented their final creative projects toward the completion of their Bachelor of Fine Arts degrees. The show also featured the work of guest choreographer Andrea Miller, who is the Artistic Director of Galim Dance, along with dancers from her NYC company. Additionally, UCSB faculty members Christina McCarthy and Brooke Smiley deconstructed Edgar Allen Poe's "The Raven" and displayed Bone Stories respectively in their pieces.
âThe welcome speech encouraged the audience to turn to art to express emotions and convey common ground during a time of a polarized political climate. Emotion was not only evoked through the dancing itself but through strategic pairings with spoken word, silence, and the sounds of body movement. In combination with the lighting, tender pausing moments, and harsh and irrational body movements, each choreographer effectively created a powerful, emotional, and thought-provoking scene, which was highly rewarded by the audience who erupted into applause at the end of each piece.
The concert was followed by a Q-and-A with the choreographers where they explained the motivation behind their work. All the students in Theater and Dance did an incredible job. Big thanks to directors Brandon Whited and Christina McCarthy for a âgreat show.