It's more than just dancing. It's the feeling of being raised into an unplanned lift. That impromptu moment of suspension when you feel lighter while the world seems heavier. That is what audience members stepped into this weekend when they attended the Dance Department's annual Fall Faculty concert, aptly labeled ""Upswing.""
The two-night event held in the Wisconsin Union Theater was a showcase of students' physical talent and choreographers' creative minds. Notably, the production was accentuated by the accompaniment of live music for most dance pieces and a spoken word poetry appearance by First Wave in one performance.
As the annual show expanded this year to the larger venue of the Wisconsin Union Theater, a wider span of resources were allotted to the event. These resources included stage benefits and a larger seating capacity to accommodate the concert's growing crowd. In fact, the larger number of seats allowed the dance department to offer free tickets to local high school students in a successful outreach effort.
The expansion to larger venues, audiences and communities represents the energy behind the dance department's current movement. In accordance with UW-Madison's ""Year of the Arts,"" the dance faculty has made the transition from a major program––previously under kinesiology––to an independent department. Chair of the department Jin-Wen Yu explained in an interview how this growing momentum was given a tribute in the event's name, ""Upswing."" He also explained that the department's transition has increased its personnel, student base and popularity.
The shift from program to department seems subtle to the public eye. However, according to Jin-Wen, this change allowed better efficiency and independence in decision making as well as an identity in the national profile. Although the name ""Upswing"" suggests a climax, Jin-Wen stated that the department will continue its activeness ""with the hope that we will be able to ‘upswing' for a longer time.""
The fall concert definitely established a good continuance of this momentum as an enjoyable annual show and as part of a larger dance weekend that included a new collaboration with the Madison Dance Conference. ""Dancing All Weekend Long"" provided a weekend of dance lessons given by student dance organizations and a few dance department professors before the Madison Dance Conference Sunday night.
This weekend was anything but static for the dance department with their role in the Madison Dance Conference and their entertaining performances that ranged in topics and levels of abstraction. Indeed, certain pieces allowed audience members to interpret their own personal understanding from the works. Amongst the elements left open to interpretation was a moment in one performance when the dancers barked and growled at the audience. In another performance, a ballerina non-traditionally dressed in a black dress with small white patches impersonated a swan.
Performer Marlene Skog verified this intent of open interpretation in an interview about the meaning of her piece labeled, ""The Swan."" She claimed her motivation was ""to allow the freedom of the viewer to interpret from their own point of reference what [the dance] means to them.""
Choreographer Karen McShane-Hellenbrand explained her intent to appeal to universal experiences of awe, wonder and beauty. By transcending cultural contexts, the show's performances gave a more inclusive understanding to a larger audience that contained international students as well. However, heavy cultural themes such as the Vietnam War and narratives of immigration to the United States were also portrayed in two performances.
Ultimately, the weekend's variety of themes, artistic media and movements provided audience members with a comprehensive scope of the dance department's thriving potential.
