By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
The Dance Program at Bowling Green State University is stepping up its game to meet the obstacles posed by the pandemic.
The program will present its fall concert, “Dancing Outside the Lines,” tonight (Oct. 23) and Saturday (Oct. 24) at 8 p.m. using the Vimeo platform. The links are available at the BGSU Arts site. Because of performance rights for the music used, the concerts will not be archived, so they must be watched live.
While COVID-19 made the usual production on the stage with an audience impossible, it pushed the dancers and choreographers to explore new territory, said Colleen Murphy, who program’s associate teaching professor.
Four dances will be done on the Donnell Theatre stage live with a few invited guests. The remainder will be recorded performances.
For the opener, “Home” with music from Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros, Murphy virtually brought together 28 alumni of the program, who taped the contemporary dance, much of it in unison in their back yards, in their kid’s playroom, or in the studio they now teach in.
Murphy said this is something she’s wanted to do, but bringing everyone together on campus was too difficult. Doing it virtually made the reunion possible.
Choreographer Tammy Starr produced five videos of dance in public spaces – “The People” public art project on Poe Road, Wooster Green, the Kawashima Peace Garden, the green space at the Wolfe Center, and against a filmed backdrop of cornfields.
Murphy staged and recorded a tap dance routine outside the student union. During the filming, Starship delivery robots made their way onto the scene as if to join the dance.
Four live performances, one a solo and three duets, including the aptly titled “Love in Quarantine” with music by Adele will be presented on stage in the Donnell Theatre .
Having the videos playing such a large role in the show, “is kind of chill,” she said. “It has a different energy from a usual concert” when everyone is pressing to perform live.
All this was possible, Murphy said, because of the work of colleagues and students from the Department of Theatre and Film. The program joined the department last fall. Previously it had been part of the School of Human Movement, Sports, and Leisure Studies.
Theater crews built tap boards for the outside production and provided technical assistance. Having the live production, allowed theater students to get in their hours of production work.
“The theater staff is so generous, so helpful,” she said.
“It’s just integrated into what they’re already doing.”
All the changes wrought by COVID will influence teaching and performance in the future.
Murphy has mostly been teaching remotely, and she sees a role for the technology going forward.
It allowed her to bring in guests, who it would otherwise be impossible to have on campus.
Murphy enjoyed working with the video, something she did when she was a student.
She recruited more people for the tap routines because they could learn their steps individually, and had less commitment to rehearsals with the ensemble.
When they are able to come together again, Murphy said, she expects they’ll appreciate it more.
Dancers are always aware that an injury could end their dance careers. COVID only heightened that sense, she said, of “how fleeting this is.”
