Guest Artist Melanie George premieres work at Performing Dance Company fall concert

October 27 2020
U Dancers rehearse new work by Guest Artist Melanie George U Dancers rehearse new work by Guest Artist Melanie George

The University of Utah School of Dance presents Performing Dance Company this weekend, October 29-31, through its virtual streaming format. The concert features premieres from faculty choreographers: Natalie Desch, Christine McMillan, and Satu Hummasti & Daniel Clifton.

Guest Artist Melanie George will also premiere a work for eight dancers. “…from Down Here”  is a blues-based jazz work emphasizing themes of labor for the individual and the group through gesture and rhythm. 

Melanie George’s signature neo-jazz style was a new to a majority of the cast, and expanded their vocabulary.

“Melanie’s cast of dancers had varying jazz dance experiences, but no one had experience learning or performing neo-jazz dance,” rehearsal director Jessica Boone said. Boone is second-year graduate student in the MFA in Modern Dance program, and has continued working with the dancers after George’s virtual residency concluded. 

“During this entire process of learning and rehearsing Melanie’s choreography, dancers have continually questioned and deepened their understanding of neo-jazz dance principles of weight-sensing, rhythm, isolations, footwork, musicality in connection with jazz music, Africanist vernacular movement, improvisation and community. It is a lot of information for the dancers to actively consider and make choices about while performing, and they have risen to the challenge.”Melanie

“The work has as much improvisation as it does set choreography,” Melanie George explained.  We spent the first few rehearsals learning jazz improvisation methods, which differ significantly from the way improvisation is practiced in postmodern dance. Improvisation in jazz dance is fundamental, as it is in all dance forms of the African Diaspora.”

The music for the work — including compositions by Jimi Hendrix, Roberta Flack, and Cassandra Wilson — was essential to the process as well. “In my work, I mostly use jazz music and its related forms, blues and funk. The blues has many textures and encompasses a wide spectrum of emotions. It’s a very effective path to introduce young dancers to roots-based jazz dancing,” George said. 

As with all Fall 2020 performances, the residency called for creative solutions to the challenges posed by social distancing and mask requirements. It goes without saying that having a guest artist present virtually is a different experience than working together in the studio. Regardless, U dancers faced the process with positivity and enthusiasm.

During this entire process of learning and rehearsing Melanie’s choreography, dancers have continually questioned and deepened their understanding of neo-jazz dance principles of weight-sensing, rhythm, isolations, footwork, musicality in connection with jazz music, Africanist vernacular movement, improvisation and community.

“We had to learn new ways of communicating instructions and questions, figuring out directional facings of movement, and deal with inconsistent technology issues. Despite having two camera views for Melanie to see, it was impossible to get a good viewing angle of the entire room. We had to learn how to maintain a sense of energy and community inside the studio without Melanie's presence in the physical space with us,” Boone said.

“On top of learning choreography on Zoom, we had to navigate COVID safety protocols that impacted the spacing, traveling, and the use of props in the dance. Melanie was very aware of keeping the dancers safe, so when it was time for the dancers to move around the studio, we worked slowly to find pathways that would keep the dancers physically distanced.”

The School of Dance has made it possible to allow as many people into the audience as possible by live-streaming performances at no cost! Viewers can catch this exciting concert at dance.utah.edu/virtual shows.

Join U School of Dance for Performing Dance Company

10/29 at 5:30 pm
10/30 at 7:30 pm
10/31 at 2 & 7:30 pm