This Tuesday and Wednesday, April 9 and 10, at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater in downtown Bloomington, Indiana University student dancers and musicians will perform two shows of original choreography and music—at 6:30 p.m. (Program A) and 8:30 p.m. (Program B)—in Hammer and Nail.
Each program, exploring a wide range of ideas, is approximately one hour long without an intermission and supported financially by the IU Student Association.
There is a food drive in the Buskirk lobby to benefit the Hoosier Hills Community Food Bank. A non-perishable food item or cash contributions will be accepted in lieu of an admission fee.
The new works being premiered are the result of months of collaboration between Jacobs School of Music composers and the School of Public Health’s Contemporary Dance Program (moving to Theatre and Drama July 1) choreography class, under the direction of faculty member Selene Carter.
This marks the eighth year student composers and choreographers have worked together across campus to produce stunning works of modern dance.
Called Hammer and Nail, the project goes back to 1999, when composers and guitarists got together to explore new techniques and create new works.
Composers Forest Pierce and Justin Merritt, along with guitarists Nick Ciraldo and Espen Jensen (now Jacobs School admissions director) helped create works that are still in the contemporary guitar repertoire today.
Collaborations with viola, organ, harp, and modern dance followed.
Contemporary Dance program director and faculty member Elizabeth Shea and Jacobs faculty composer Jeffrey Hass enlisted the help of Ryan Burress and the Student Composers Association (SCA) along with the participation of the Contemporary Dance choreography class. What followed has grown to the creation of 15-20 new five-minute works for dance each year.
Choreographers and composers are paired after an evening of “speed dating” in which they share their ideas and approaches to creation. Francisco Cortés-Álvarez, Nicholas Cline, and Jay Hurst of the (SCA), along with dance and composition faculty help pair students expressing similar artistic visions.
Says mentor Hass, “This is certainly one of the great successes of intercampus collaboration, which I expect will continue for many years to come. It is an experience which takes the students out of their own comfort zones and leads to understanding of the process of artistic sharing, both in formulating and negotiating creative ideas that they would not necessarily have in their own programs alone.”
Of note this year, is that three of the dances incorporate structured movement improvisation.
This year, the composers have created a lot of music scores that incorporate fixed media (created electronically with a computer) blended with live instrumentation.
The dance Iridescent Hues, by Annie Ellis and Philip Sink, is a perfect example of the problem solving that occurs in the creative process.
Ellis wanted to use paint powder so that her dancers would be coated with paint by the end of the dance. That wasn’t feasible because the paint stained the floor.
What emerged is a gorgeous film that is projected during the dance. She pursued her idea and arrived at a much different place then she thought she would!
The end result is beautiful and is so telling of where dance is these days. There are many possibilities with virtual dancing bodies!
Photos: “Unfinished Business” and “Montgomery Blue,” works in last year’s Hammer and Nail concert, Jeremy Hogan, photographer.