By Grace Eberts
The transition to online classes has been difficult for everyone. However, I would argue that one of the hardest transitions has been for art students. Art relies on human interaction and collaboration that just is not the same online. Specifically, performing artists, such as dancers, lack in person interaction with audience members. A good piece of choreography can be captivating, exhilarating, and stimulating for the audience members. The shift to trying to emulate this experience for audience members in an online platform has been a difficult one for students in the Theatre and Dance Department at GW.
Each Fall and Spring, the Dance department puts on a dance concert. Students taking choreography hold auditions and select dancers to participate in their piece, which serves as the culmination of their choreographic studies. These performances are an integral part of the dance department at GW, allowing students the opportunity to perform and display their choreographic abilities to the rest of the community.
For seniors, their senior year choreography projects have been in the distance of their college career for many years. It is an exciting experience to get to take charge of your own dance performance. However, the online pandemic reality has entirely changed this experience for them. Instead of onstage performances, the TRDA apartment puts on a virtual performance made up of a series of dance films.
Chloe Davis, Dance Major in class of 2021, speaks to how her Senior dance concert has been something she has been looking forward to for all of her college experience. She says that “As seniors we’ve had to learn how to take what we’ve practiced for 4 years and apply it to a zoom screen. I wouldn’t say it has negatively impacted my choreographic process, but it definitely is hard to imagine and create when all you have is a 2-dimensional image of a dancer. Not to mention it is hard to be in tune with your creativity when you haven’t stepped foot in a studio and danced with the people who inspire you in over a year. While choreography for a dance film is different from anything we know how to do, the department looks to each other for support as we approach our final films. Most of all, I just miss being in the studio with the people who have been a massive part of my time here at GW.”
As Chloe says, if anything has come out of this virtual experience, the support and community of the dance department has shown through stronger than ever. As a freshman joining the dance department this year, my dance classes and the dance concert rehearsals were the first zoom calls where I felt like I had the chance to really interact and meet students with similar interests. I even met my roommate, who I moved to DC with this semester. At the heart of a lot of student choreography is an opportunity to collaborate and work artistically with your peers. Keeping the dance concert running online has allowed students to continue to collaborate and build artistic relationships together in order to continue to fuel the community within TRDA.
Julia Chodyla, a Dance major in the class of 2021, speaks more to the technical differences between online and in person choreography. She says that “instead of creating long choreographic phrases, I think more about short movements that are interactive with the camera. I always try to ask myself: how can I best take advantage of the virtual platform? The answer is always to include shots that audience members would never be able to experience if they were in a theater. Some examples of this are super close ups or shots from different and unusual angles. When the camera moves seamlessly with the dancers, it can really make the audience feel like they are right there with them. Also, I’ve learned that for film, you have to be very selective about which clips to include. Every second counts and fillers are just a distraction from the feeling you’re trying to create.”
Julia brings up a crucial point that dance on film allows you to utilize editing, location, and angles in ways that would not be possible online. Maida Withers, director of the dance department, created a unique piece this year in which she utilized green screens to create artificial backgrounds behind solos of ten different dancers in the department. Chloe was able to create a duet in the rain. A feature that could never be possible in person. Even Julia’s dance film takes place on a beach in which she dances in the ocean. All of these opportunities are brought about by the power of the camera and the ability to bring the audience into an alternate reality.
If this article sparked some questions with you about what dance on film looks like, the online concert will be occurring on Thursday, April 22nd at 7:30 PM. Below is the link to register for the event. Following the dance film showing, there will be a Q&A with choreographers where you can ask them more about their choreographic experience and the journey to online dancing.
