Duke is notable as a basketball legacy, as a premier research institution, as a hallmark liberal-arts education and, most recently, as a victorious underdog in football, but little is said publicly about the blossoming arts culture at Duke, particularly in the Dance Program. The Dance Program at Duke has been present since the 1930s when it was part of the physical education program, but over the years it has grown into a freestanding program with both a major and a minor. The program has grown substantially in the last six years with the tripling of full-time faculty. Its success as a program is impossible to ignore as an intrinsic component of arts culture at Duke.
This weekend, Duke will feature its faculty and student dancers and choreographers in their annual fall showcase, November Dances. The performance will feature pieces choreographed by faculty in ballet, modern and African dance, as well as performances choreographed by Dance Program students.
“Each dance engages the community in a different way, from more formal qualities with abstract interpretations of the imagery, to ones that engage with specific cultural or environmental or personal issues,” said Tyler Walters, associate professor of the practice of ballet. Walters is one of the choreographers for this year’s showcase, alongside two other faculty members, Ava Vinesett and Andrea Woods.
Walters admits that his piece is more technically-focused and abstract than Vinesett’s and Woods’s but invites interpretation into his creative process. His piece for November Dances is oriented around the concept of following in each other’s footsteps and explores this theme to the soundtrack of a fugue. Just as the voices in the fugue layer and explore certain themes, so will the dancers in Tyler’s piece interplay the idea of following in their movements with one another.
“What I really like about working with Tyler is that while he has a vision for the outcome of the piece, he is not opposed to being inspired and influenced by his dancers,” said Maurice Dowell, a sophomore who will perform in November Dances. “In working, we try out a lot of different things. There’s a lot of trial and error, but in doing this, it gives us dancers a voice and a sense of entitlement in connection to the piece.”
Apart from faculty-choreographed works, students Ellen Brown, Stephanie Joe and Jayne Ratliff have each choreographed their own dances for the showcase. Their inspirations are varied: for Brown, it was an exhibit at the Nasher; for Joe, it was in a piece of Italian music named “Ascolta”; and for Ratliff, it was in the intimate creative setting of the Duke Dance Program.
“The dance department at Duke is really coming into its own and producing some interesting work,” Ratliff said. “I think the first [dance] major graduated not all that long ago, and now we have a Fall performance filled with amazing dancers. That says something.”
“I want Duke students to get from the performance that there is no limit of the creative mind here at Duke. We may not be a conservatory, but the dancers at Duke are strong in their technique as well as their drive,” Brown said. “Substantial work really can be created here as long as you find people that are dedicated and willing to explore with you.”
For her piece, “Unseen: for the Light failed to acknowledge the Shadow to which it was attached,” Brown is working with a group of six dancers in order to examine the ways in which people unknowingly connect with each other.
“Your shadow literally touches people around you everyday, so if we strive to acknowledge our shadow, mustn’t we also acknowledge those people around that our shadow touches?” Brown said.
Similarly, the Dance Program can feel like the shadow of Duke, touching and connecting Duke to Durham through its programming at the historical Ark building, its outreach with the American Dance Festival and performances like November Dances. Although the annual Fall showcase is well over a decade old, it is still a poignant reminder to the Duke community that dance is alive and well on campus.
“The showcase shows the potential for dance to reach out in a lot of different ways; you have classical ballet next to modern next to African dance, all in the same program, each engaging the audience in its own way and with its own means,” said Walters. “It shows the possibility of dance.”
With the successful win over Miami this past weekend, the question floating through the Bryan Center, the pages of The Chronicle and everyone’s Facebook feeds is a resounding “Is Duke a football school?” But with the November Dances showcase this weekend, and the victories and possibilities of the Dance Program here at Duke, a more appropriate question might be, “Is Duke now a dance school?”
November Dances 2013 is on Friday and Saturday, Nov. 22 and 23, at 8 p.m. in Reynolds Industries Theater in the Bryan Center. Tickets can be purchased at tickets.duke.edu or at the box office. Tickets are $15 for general admission, $10 for senior citizens and $5 for students.
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