Company breaks the modern mold

Combining humor, jazz and lively costumes with modern dance pieces, the Virginia Repertory Dance Company will perform this weekend in Latimer-Shaeffer Theatre.

"There's a lot of pieces that break the stereotype [of modern dance]," senior Keira Hart, a rehearsal assistant, said. "It's so polished and thought through. The costumes and lights — everything has been a process."

The concert is performed by the Virginia Repertory Dance Company, composed of eight JMU junior and senior dance majors. Director Kate Trammell, a professor in the School of Theatre and Dance, held auditions last semester for students to train for a professional dance company experience. Training began last semester through intensive residencies with guest artists to prepare the dancers for the fall performing semester. Tonight the students will present five pieces that are choreographed by both local professors and guest artists from Washington, D.C. and New York City.

Ed Tyler, currently freelancing in Washington, D.C., is the first guest artist whose work will appear in the concert. Titled "Flux," his piece opens with dark electronic music and floods the stage with eight dancers adorned in metallic-looking costumes.

"It's very much about space — the architecture of the group in space," Trammell said. "Having performed it, (we) just have a better sense of the group," senior Lindsay Kipness said. Rehearsing since last semester, the performers have been focusing heavily on the concepts and images Tyler intended to portray.

"It was very collaborative. A lot of choreographers in this concert have asked (us) to take an idea or movement from what they've given and create (our) own variation on it," senior Alicia White said.

A jazz number, "After Hours," is choreographed by professor Suzanne Miller-Corso. Set to the music of Prince, it has a contemporary atmosphere with a hint of the 1930s.

"It has that sophisticated, retrograde feel," Miller-Corso said. "Jazz is a little more accessible, its function is to entertain; you don't have to think about it. It's not interpretive," Miller-Corso said. "I definitely want people to be entertained by it."

Professor Shane O'Hara follows Miller-Corso by drawing the audience into a much darker world. The world he creates is not fiction. It was indirectly inspired by the recent terrorist events.

"It was definitely created in the shadow of [Sept. 11]," O'Hara said. "Where the emotional dust has settled and where it's still floating in the air." The title, "After" attempts to reflect the nation's mentality after dealing with the effects of that day.
Guest artist Monica Bill Barnes rekindles the audience's spirit with a lively showcase of Elvis impersonators. An exceptionally interesting aspect of the piece is the costume changes in "Elvis Unsettled." Drawing on both humor and active movement, the costumes in this piece often double as props.

In addition to absurdity and comedy, Barnes often has an underlying commentary as a canvas for her work. She often uses the stage as a window to glimpse human behavior.

"In a sense, it's character driven; you get views of very specific people," Trammell said. "There is an aspect of humor that unifies it."

The choreography of guest artist Tiffany Mills also appears in the concert with a piece titled "Open Nerve." The Virginia Repertory Dance Concert runs Dec. 6 to Dec. 8, starting each night at 8 p.m. in Latimer-Shaeffer Theatre in Duke Hall. Tickets are $6 for students and $10 for non-students.