By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
Song and dance and more spilled into the corridors, classrooms, corners and stages of the Fine Arts Center and the Wolfe Center for the Arts Saturday during the 14th ArtsX.
Art Education major Taylor Cornell works in the painting studio.
The gala showcases the creativity of all the arts on campus. This year ArtsX invited special guests Verb Ballets, a Cleveland-based company.
The company adopted the name Verb Ballets because it evoked action, said Richard Dickinson, associate artistic director. The company’s performances at ArtsX showed how fitting that name was.
In the second of the Verb’s two performances Saturday evening, it blended humor and sensuality to the music of Mozart in K281. That sensuality was evident throughout, whether on the contemporary “Between the Machine” with a pulsating score that mixed jazz with industrial sounds, to the climatic setting of Ravel’s “Bolero,” where European and Indian classical dance moves blended with flamenco.
Verb Ballets performs K281
Verb didn’t restrict its action to the stage. It also presented classes for community and university dance students earlier in the day and performed and worked with middle and high school students on Friday.
Dickinson said the company particularly enjoyed the middle school, where a two-hour delay on a Friday meant the energy level was particularly high.
The company’s performances Saturday had people buzzing in the halls of the Wolfe Center and Fine Arts Center as they perused the jewelry, ceramics, glass, prints, and more on sale.
Taiko drums bring ArtsX activities to a close.
Artists also demonstrated their techniques.
Music suffused the event from traditional sounds from Beethoven to taiko drums to the experimental work of doctoral students.
As usual there was far more going on than any one visitor could take in.
While the crowd attending seemed smaller than in the past, the energy of the participants was still high.
Word games were offered by the Creative Writing program.
Caroline Kouma pauses following her performance as art of the Arias and Songs session.
Kay Kleingers demonstrates enameling in the metals studio.
Costumes from past productions of “A Christmas Carol” were displayed.
Visitors in the Faculty Exhibit, which remains on display through the end of the semester.
