Allison Mathis

Spanish Fork, Utah

Dance Performance

Creative Track

 

Choreograph for Student Dance Concert

 

For my project I choreographed a dance to be performed at the student dance concert fall 2016.  There were a lot of steps in the process of this project, some of which started months before the actual rehearsals began.  In spring of 2016 I presented my choreographic ideas to the dance faculty.  The faculty then decided on a number of pieces they felt had potential to develop and become something.  Thankfully the idea I presented was selected. 

Fall of 2016 on the first week of school the students selected to be choreographers held auditions.  From those auditions we selected dancers to be in our pieces.  I selected three dancers to be a part of my dance.  We immediately started holding weekly rehearsals that lasted all the way through the semester until the concert, which took place at the end of the fall semester. 

 

I feel like a lot of influences were inspiring me to move forward with this project.  Dance is something I am extremely passionate about.  I feel that there is so much power and beauty that can be expressed through the human body and through movement.  Choreographing is not something that you can be taught and automatically become a master at.  Choreography is a craft and it takes a lot of practice to get better at it.  I recognized what a great opportunity this would be for me to take this time to choreograph while I have available and willing dancers to be a part of my process and a venue provided to perform at.   I can’t think of a better time or a better way to discover my craft and to make mistakes than while I am in school, learning and developing skills necessary to be successful in my field. 

           

I don’t know of many projects that come without any challenges.  Like learning any new skill, there comes with it a fair amount of growing pains.  In my process of choreographing, I hit a few stumbling blocks, or I like to call them creative blocks.  I felt that I had run into a wall and was out of ideas to further my piece.  Fortunately I found numerous resources that helped me move beyond my blocks and I was able to learn and move forward.

 

Another challenge I faced during this project came when we got into tech rehearsals.  My dance was created with the idea of how the lighting of the piece would influence movement.  I had several lighting cues, especially at the beginning of the piece.  Although the cues were rehearsed several times by the person running the lighting board, there were a couple of nights that some major lighting errors occurred, which gave my dance a completely different and unanticipated look.  Although the final product had some hiccups when performed on stage, it helped me learn to just roll with the punches and not hold too hard on wishing to have things perfect.  Mistakes happen and it is important to deal with them well.   

           

There are a few ways in which I feel this project was a benefit to not just me, but my dancers.  Because my dancers auditioned and were selected to be in my piece, they were given a great performance opportunity, as they were able to perform at six shows.  This experience also gave my dancers the chance to learn from a different teaching and movement style, which versatility and adaptability is very important in the dance world.  I also gave my dancers the opportunity to work on their own craft and their own way of expression through collaborating with them and allowing them to put their own flavor into their movement.   

           

This project I feel truly benefitted me the most.  I learned so much through the challenges and the joys that came from immersing myself in creating something that would be performed for an audience.  I feel that I better understand who I am as a creator and a choreographer and what my natural tendencies are when it comes to movement.  I learned to be a better leader and decision maker.  I gained confidence in my skills as a dancer and choreographer and feel more capable for the next time that I have the opportunity to choreograph.  Overall I feel that although this was a challenging project mentally, emotionally, physically and creatively, in the end it turned out to be one of the greatest things I could have done in my undergraduate studies.