Spring Dance

Photograph by Brad Elliot, Artistic Director Erlyne Whiteman
Lighting Design by Jonathan Hicks

I am starting a new project this month, which will be performed the third weekend in April. I will be designing lights for a small dance concert at Smith College. I took a video camera with me yesterday to record the dances in hopes that I will be able to watch them over the next month at my leisure. It is important for me to view the dances as many times as I can between now and opening, since the hardest part about designing for dance is the constant movement and change in speed. (As well as the similarity in any given gesture...repetition...repetition...repetition...oh so beautiful, but also hard to remember!)

I love designing for dance!!! Something so wonderful about watching a body move through space. The lines that the body creates and the boundaries that it breaks are so breath-taking. I haven't worked on a dance piece in a year, which is the longest dry spell I have had since I was a senior at Westmont College in 2004.

I will be creating lights for the following styles:
Modern Dance
Theatre Based Movement
Romantic Duet (Modern Dance)
The last is still yet to be determined as I will need to go to the class and observe the piece, but it is safe to assume that it will be along the lines of Modern Dance.

When I think of Modern Dance, I immediately think of Merce Cunningham... What an amazing choreographer, artist, and person! He is definitely a person on my top ten people to meet list!
What other great dance instructors do you constantly return to for enjoyment?