The stage may be smaller, but the energy will be huge. Audiences will get a chance to get up close and personal with the performers during LU’s upcoming dance concert.
Lamar University’s department of theatre & dance will present “Fall and Recovery,” Nov. 20-22 in the Studio Theatre rather than the usual University Theatre stage.
“It’s a smaller space in general,” Amy Wright, assistant professor of dance, said. “You’re also very close to your audience. Instead of being separated by the proscenium and the orchestra pit, you’re close enough to see them blink. You’re close enough to see if they’re reading their programs or if they’re paying attention or they’re falling asleep. So, it makes you very focused. It makes you very aware. It makes you very present in every moment.”
“Fall & Recovery” is the traditional faculty dance concert and this year’s will feature seven new dances choreographed LU full-time and adjunct faculty, and one by guest artist Bill Wade.
“There’s one dance in the concert that is the music of Jelly Roll Morton, and it’s a little bit more classic — it’s tap and jazz,” she said. “But then everything else in the concert is going to be very contemporary, sort of ‘of the moment’ current work.”
The concert is repertory style, Wright said, which means that all of the works are standalone.
“They’re all coming from different places and inspired by different things,” she said.
Vidor senior Reagan Dearing said she wants the audience to see that dance can be extremely diverse.
“Dance can’t just be one thing,” she said. “It’s not pretty ballet or cool tap with flashy moves. It’s about the movement. It’s about the intention of the movement — and not just to be showy, but seeing the full picture.”
Wright has two pieces in the show: “Amplitude” and “Stranger in a Strange Land.”
“(Amplitude) is a duet with two of our seniors that’s about the movement of pendulums,” Wright said. “It’s about the John Mellencamp quote, ‘I know there’s a balance. I see it when I swing past.’ ‘Stranger in a Strange Land’ is a brand new group work exploring the female experience of refugeeism or asylum seeking, or exodus or displacement from your home.”
Some routines will utilize props, Deer Park senior Chloe Parker said.
“We’re using a walking stick, but in a very unconventional way,” Parker said. “You’re having to share your weight with it in ways that it’s extremely hard to balance — partner dancing, but with a stick.”
Wright said audiences will see a lot more nuance in the small space than they would in a large auditorium.
“They’re going to see a lot more detail,” she said.
Wright said she hopes the show will prompt deep emotions from the audience.
“We look at dance as storytelling, and as a way that we can use the human body as a medium to reveal things that are common to all of our experience,” she said. “There are dances in the show that we hope make our audience really happy. And there are dances in the show that maybe evoke tears, a sort of romantic feeling, a sense of melancholy, nostalgia or hopefulness.”
Showtimes are 7:30 p.m., Nov. 20-22, with a matinee at 2 p.m., Nov. 22. General admission tickets are $15, $10 for seniors, $7 for students with LU ID, and $5 for children 12 and under.
For tickets, visit lamar.edu/lutdtix.