Senior choreographers bring bold vision to Raw Edges XXVII at Mercyhurst
The Department of Dance in the School of the Arts at Mercyhurst University is delighted to present Raw Edges XXVII, featuring four performances from April 25-27 in the Mary D’Angelo Performing Arts Center.
Seven senior BFA and BA students will premiere their latest choreographic offerings in this capstone concert, the culminating project of a yearlong research endeavor. Drawing from their four years of experiences at Mercyhurst, the students are the creative directors of their own process, including holding auditions and casting the production, creating a rehearsal schedule, costuming the dancers, and working with lighting designer Bob Steineck and technical director Andrew Ferguson to realize their vision on the stage.
Gabrielle Harris’s piece, “fractals,” features sinuous patterns of dancers and complex layers of movement canons, reflecting her inquiry into neural plasticity and the brain’s ability to form, destroy, and reform connections in response to external stimuli.
Blending horror film aesthetics and the quintessential summer camp experience with contemporary dance, Elena Bobby’s “Don’t Look Back” plays on the body's instinctive reactions to fear and the feeling that you’re not alone.
In her work “Ångstrom,” Mia Semieraro visualizes the probabilistic qualities of a variety of theories about quantum physics, juxtaposing the science with the emotions that physicists feel about the indeterminacy of these theories.
“Breaking Boxes” is Jillian Pohl’s introspective look at stereotypes in the dance world, specifically those that are associated with injuries, and the mental fortitude a dancer must develop to return to the field after an injury.
The impact of chronic pain, particularly how it alters brain function and emotional regulation, can transform a dancer’s once-joyful relationship with dance into frustration, resentment, and even loss of identity, as depicted in “Pain on the Brain” by Megan Wade.
Isabella Johnson’s piece, “Pounce II,” is a subtle exploration of the complexity and depth of female relationships, drawing on the hidden messages in historical depictions of women in film, societal expectations, cartoons, memes, and other forms of social communication.
Utilizing theories of embodied cognition, “On the Outside Lookin’ Through” is Nadia Stronkowsky’s lucid and intricate vision of the symbiotic relationship between the mind and body, through the somatosensory processing of everyday neurological phenomena such as motion sickness and emotional dysregulation.
“I am always impressed and even awed by the curiosity the dancers bring to their research and the creativity they display in the translation of all that they’ve thought and learned into this work of choreography. The future of dance creation is in very good hands!” notes C. Noelle Partusch, chair of the Department of Dance and an adviser to several projects. Her colleague Jennifer McNamara concurs. “The ways that the students visualize such complex ideas are beautiful reminders that art is an infinitely expansive way of communicating. We all come to the performances with our own set of experiences that color our viewing—and I love that.”
Raw Edges XXVII will be presented in the Mary D’Angelo Performing Arts Center on Friday, April 25, at 7 p.m.; Saturday, April 26, at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m.; and Sunday, April 27, at 2 p.m. Tickets can be purchased at https://miac.mercyhurst.edu/events/raw-edges-xxvii.
PHOTO: Senior choreographer Jillian Pohl