New Dance Festival presents remarkable cutting edge dance
Festival proves creative start to Masterpiece Season
By Megan Williams, contributing writer
Posted on September 11, 2006

The word “contemporary” cannot accurately sumup the New Dance Festival performance, which featured a group of artists made up of JMU students, professors and guests performers from other companies. The diversity of dance styles and emotions expressed in the six different pieces that made up the show were riveting from beginning to end.

 The 11th annual performance of the New Dance Festival was the kickoff event for the Masterpiece Season, according to box office manager Elizabeth Simmons. The performances took place Friday and Saturday evening in the Latimer-Schaeffer Theatre. Friday evening’s turnout was surprisingly impressive given the not-so-impressive weather. A combination of JMU students and individuals from the Harrisonburg community battled the downpour to support the Masterpiece Season’s opening show.

“I came to at least one performance last semester,” said junior Dorathy Ourenik before the show. “I wasn’t sure what to expect before I went to see the New Dance Festival, but I thought it was very cool and unique.”

 The two-hour performance was a blur of impressive lighting, embellished costumes and original music right from the start. The pieces were creative and brilliant, with the dancers speaking to the audience through their movements. But more than that, the talented dancers portrayed an array of emotions from bitter to beautiful through their interpretive dance, which was stylistically both delicate and violent in nature.

The choreography was flawless and the execution superb.

“I thought the performance was very intriguing,” said freshman Chloe Wendt. “I thought it was exceptional how the dancers were moving through the empty space so fluidly.”
 Following the performance was a question-and-answer session with some of the dancers and choreographers, allowing audience members to engage in a lively discussion and ask questions.  Isabel Gotzkowsky, who founded a New York City-based modern dance company and choreographed and performed in two of the pieces showcased in the Festival, said it takes “three to four weeks” to choreograph a 25-minute piece. Other questions centered around what inspired the pieces.

“I choreographed the piece ‘Up Against the Wall’ based on my travels to China,” said Gotzkowsky. “It’s about the challenges and differences we face every day which are walls being put in our way.”

 Like the diversity of emotions evoked by the different performances and of stylistic techniques used, the New Dance Festival helps to promote diversity and cultural enrichment in the JMU community. However, the interpretation of the pieces is best left to the individuals’ imagination.

“The talent and intensity in undeniable to anyone who has the privilege to see it,” said freshman Emily Young.