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03.31.08

Contacts: Arts at Emory, Jessica Moore, jkmoore@emory.edu, 404-727-1687
Emory Dance Program, Sally Radell, sradell@emory.edu, 404-727-2835

Release written by Liz Saluke 

Emory Dance Company’s “Size Blue” Redefines Proportion  

Emory Dance Company is redefining “proportion” with its 2008 spring concert, “Size Blue.” The performance, featuring an eclectic array of seven student-choreographed works, will be held April 24-26, 2008 at 8 p.m. with an additional 2 p.m. matinee on April 26 in the Schwartz Center’s Dance Studio, 1700 North Decatur Road. For tickets ($10 general public; $6 Emory faculty, staff, students and discount category groups), information and a listing of discount categories and directions, visit www.arts.emory.edu or call the Arts at Emory box office at 404-727-5050.

The background of the choreographers is as diverse as the work they will be presenting. Emory College seniors include Stephanie Sheikh, a neuroscience and behavioral biology (NBB) and dance double major and pre-med student; Addie Davis, anthropology major; Helaina Klein, NBB and dance double major; Daniel Liebeskind, music major; and Liz Saluke, an honors history major. College juniors Rachel Korenstein and Caitlin Savage are majoring in dance and sociology, and political science respectively.

Stephanie Sheikh has created a trio celebrating the technical acuity of her cast. Says Sheikh of her choreographic approach: “I appreciate movement that emphasizes the incredible skill and sophistication of dancers.” Her work reflects a preference for seamless transitions and aesthetic appeal, truly intended to stand for the beauty of movement alone.

Addie Davis’s work is set to a mixture of contemporary electronica music and powerful drumming excerpts from the famed French drum ensemble, “Les Tambours du Bronx.” Davis aims to achieve a shape-driven aesthetic that exemplifies the beauty of the dancer's body. She draws inspiration from her dancers and the organic evolution of the choreographic process.

Collaboration is the main choreographic principle underpinning Helaina Klein’s work; thus her dancers, like those of Davis, constitute a major part of the creative process. She used structured improvisation as a means to generate the movement for her piece, which deals predominately with flow, resistance, transitions and dynamic changes of weight within and between bodies.

Similar movement aesthetics characterize Liz Saluke’s work, but with an entirely different result. Saluke’s choreography seeks to embody the conflicted nature of her music—two waltzes by the acclaimed Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev. This choreographic strategy has created a distinct ethereal environment that juxtaposes the marked fluidity of the movement vocabulary within the piece.

Rachel Korenstein also explores weightiness in the body through resilient, grounded movement, but with added element of emotional drive. Her work, originally inspired by biblical women shunned for their outspoken natures, transcends the temporal divide to construct a more experientially accessible narrative about strong, determined women. Of her choreographic process, Korenstein notes, “I like my dancers to explore how the movement feels and translates into their own bodies. This allows the movement to become unique to each of them.”

Caitlin Savage has choreographed a quintet that pushes the creative invention of both her and her dancers. Her process roots itself in an exploration of her movement capabilities and how they translate to her dancer’s bodies. This process of discovery and transfer of information compliments the captivating relationships occurring between the performers in her work.

Relationships are also a dominant presence in the work of Daniel Liebeskind. His piece is composed of three trios, each working with the concept of manipulation but from different approaches. A firm believer that art needs only to evoke some reaction from the audience- be it emotional, intellectual or otherwise- Daniel has chosen humor as the stimulus common to each of the trios.

The common theme underpinning the diversity between the works is really the choreographers’ desire to foster audience autonomy in the formation of its impressions.

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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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