This year’s dance concert is a combination of several art forms. The show intertwines dance, music and poetry to create what artistic director Stella Kane calls a complex, multimedia tapestry.
The show, “Tell Tale Poe,” reflects the poetry of Edgar Allan Poe. The suggestion to use Poe’s poetry was given by Kane’s assistant choreographer Maggie Savoie, a senior BA theatre major, who is also dancing in the concert. Kane said the dance faculty agreed that using Poe’s poetry would make for an interesting show because of the nature of his work.
“His work is so colorful, and it brings up a lot of visionary kind of pictures that you can feel with dance,” Kane said. “His poetry has a lot of rhythm in it and it lent itself to dance, so it was kind of a natural fit.”
Kane included in her script some suggestions of Poe’s work that she thought would fit the show best. Choreographers then chose a poem that appealed to them, along with music of their choice. The choreographers interpreted the poem to create dance pieces that reflect their individual interpretations.
Kane said there might be an obvious reference to a poem, and the audience may identify the poem represented by a particular dance, but the pieces lend themselves to audience interpretations.
The two student choreographers for the dance concert are Natasha Natraj, a junior health-promotion and fitness major, and Madison Tinder, a senior BFA musical theatre major. Natraj and Tinder choreographed a 13-minute piece called “Come Little Children,” which represents Poe’s poem with that same title.
Natraj said that the poetry aspect of the show presented a challenge for choreographing. “It’s very easy when you get a poem like that to want to make it very literal,” she said. “That’s sort of the easy way out type of thing.”
Natraj said that while the piece she and Tinder choreographed is inspired by Poe’s poem, the two devised their own story and thoughts about why the poem was written and choreographed accordingly.
As the dancers tell stories inspired by Poe’s poetry, Poe’s voice will at times be heard reciting his work over the music they dance to. Screen projections will also be used for storytelling purposes by setting the scene for the pieces.
"Tell Tale Poe” opens Thursday, Nov. 20 at 7:30 p.m. in Fritsche Theatre at Cowan Hall. The show also runs Nov. 21-22 at 8:00 p.m. and Nov. 23 at 2:00 p.m.
