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03.25.08

Media Contact: Arts at Emory, Jessica Moore, jkmoore@emory.edu, 404-727-1687
Dance Program, Anne Walker, anne.walker@emory.edu, 404-727-7266

Release written by Laura Codron

Emory Dance Honors Candidates Present “Conversations with the Caterpillar”

Emory College seniors Johnna Wickstrom and Laura Codron present their dance honors projects in “Conversations with the Caterpillar,” a free dance performance on April 3-4 at 8 p.m. in the Schwartz Center Dance Studio. The title of the concert was inspired by a scene from Lewis Carroll’s “Alice in Wonderland” in which the caterpillar asks Alice, “Who are you?” Codron said they were influenced by this particular scene because “both of our projects focus on the portrayal of people's personal stories, whether real or imagined. Through these dances, we are showing the audience who we are.” For information call the Arts at Emory box office at 404-727-5050, or visit www.arts.emory.edu.

Codron's dance project explores the marriage between elements of dancing and acting. She will be performing four solo dances, each portraying its own unique and distinct character. In order to more genuinely portray and embody these characters, Codron investigated a range of techniques suggested by renowned modern dance choreographer and performer Daniel Nagrin, as well as those suggested by theater theorists Constantin Stanislavsky and Lee Strasberg. The choreographers of these works are Lori Teague, Amanda Lower, Molly Perez, Sarah Evens, and Codron herself. In describing the crux of her project, Codron said, “The idea behind it was to discover different means to step into the life and body of someone else, to become that person, and to do it well enough to tell these characters’ stories through movement just as well as if the characters themselves were speaking to the audience.”

Wickstrom is creating three modern dance pieces, each corresponding to a choreographer whom she is researching as part of her project. The choreographers she has chosen are Pina Bausch, Celeste Miller and Blondell Cummings. Her project involves researching these artists’ methods of creating works and utilizing those methods in creative ways for her own work, which is inspired by stories from her life as well as from those of her dancers. Two of the pieces will be performed by the same cast of five dancers with whom Wickstrom has collaborated in the creation of movement and text for those pieces. The third piece is a solo created and performed by Wickstrom, which explores aspects of her childhood in Oklahoma. “My number one goal is that each audience member is able to find a connection with at least one moment of my work, whatever the nature of that connection,” Wickstrom says.

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EMORY DANCE PROGRAM

The mission of the Emory Dance Program is to provide a curriculum that interweaves both the practical and theoretical to foster students' creative, intellectual, and communicative powers in the field of dance. We seek to develop skilled and uniquely expressive individuals who move and act with intelligence and sensitivity, think independently, and value original thought and diversity.

ARTS AT EMORY

Emory University provides a dynamic, multi-disciplinary environment for the study, creation, and presentation of the arts.

EDITORS NOTE: Photographs available upon request.

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