Watching quietly from my vantage point on a bench at the back of the Mattin Center's dance studio, I was allowed a peek into the world of Hopkins's acclaimed Modern Dance Company.
As I observed its rehearsal of Part II of their main choreographer, Marilyn Byer's prize-winning piece "Gold," I saw dancers struggling to represent the efforts of miners fruitlessly seeking their precious metal.
I saw dancers grounding themselves in a climbable structure, so that one of the "miners" in the piece could grasp for the pinnacle of the dancers, reach the climax of the dance and manifest the miners' epiphany that true gold can only be found within themselves.
During the course of her extensive career, Marilyn has been deeply entrenched in the artistic and educational merit of dance, choreographing more than 200 works which have been performed by her professional company, the dancers in her studio in Columbia, "The Dance Dimension" and internationally. "Gold" is one of the most renowned of these dances.
In 1987 she was honored as one of seven Kennedy Center Teacher Fellows and was awarded a Medal and Award of Excellence for her efforts as both an artist and a teacher.
"Gold" was then funded by the Center to be choreographed for that year's Art Dialogue Australia bicentennial celebration. Marilyn auditioned, carefully selected and rehearsed Australian dancers for the piece until they met her perfectionist expectations. The piece focuses on the discovery of gold, which, as Marilyn quipped, is "something that both Australia and the United States had in common."
Dancers sophomore Giselle Chang, junior Kelsey Jennings, senior Rachel Pierson, Seth Pitts, freshman Amy Babay, Katie Reinhart, Wakil Ahmed, freshman Erika Ho, graduate student Dina Itkin, sophomore Emily Moore, junior Samantha Pflum and senior Ezra Taylor first started work on their modernized rendition of this piece with Marilyn over Christmas. As Marilyn counted off, "One ... come on, Giselle! Two, three ... you're cooperating beautifully! Four, five ... keep your legs together! Six ... all right, that's a take now," I eagerly watched the dancers come together into a "V" and flawlessly continue with the piece as Amy, at the tip of the formation, double back-flipped out to transition into another sequence of the dance.
Already impressed by the dancers' skill, dedication (rehearsing at 5 p.m. on a cherished Friday night) and courage in performing Marilyn's physically challenging and acrobatically demanding routines, I realized the secret to their success when Marilyn, in a mock menacing tone, threatened, "These young dancers have fulfilled my highest expectations ... or they will ..."
Marilyn's blunt but light-hearted manner as she Socratically works with her students, threshing out the most aesthetically pleasing routine within the realms of the dancers physical abilities, commanding "Read my mind" when they ask if their current timing of "jump on four and a thrust on five" works with the music, makes her incredible credentials and standards for her dancers seem less intimidating.
Her unique approach to dance focuses more on the dancers sense of ensemble, prioritizing the abilities of her dancers before the minute details of her intended routine. She prefers to have the dancers "contribute their own ideas," as she believes dance should be a "collaborative experience" and that it is "more honest to not impose ideas" on her dancers to highlight and best utilize their talent and innate ability.
The company's co-president, Pflum, says that their choreographers, Marilyn and Larissa Byers, serve as close mentors and sources of inspiration to the dancers: she in fact talks to Marilyn on the phone several times a week!
Marilyn's eccentric style and true Hopkins spirit were revealed, however, when she instructed her dancers to make use of "centripetal force" to pull themselves around each other in one move and then spin out on to the stage. As felt by the dancers' aching muscles every day after rehearsal, Marilyn aligns the study of dance with Hopkins's academic goals, teaching them about the capabilities of their bodies and how to move in space.
This weekend's concert line-up will go as follows: "Breaking the Silence," "Crow," "Noon," "Night," "Nostalgia," "Gallery," "Rainforest," parts I and II of "Tormented," "Song of the Shepherdess" and parts I and II of "Gold."
Pflum provided a breakdown of the complex symbolism and meaning behind all of Marilyn's pieces. According to her, "Breaking the Silence" focuses on the importance of speaking out against injustice and sticking to one's passions. "Crow" is "zoomorphic; it is about channeling the essence of a crow."
"Noon" and "Night" are straightforward, their meanings as simple as their titles. "Nostalgia" concerns reflection on past memories and their impact on one's future, while "Gallery" explores the fear and chaos of a shooting gallery in a war zone and "Rainforest" is an environmentalist piece promoting the conservation of our rainforests and the protection of their inhabitants. In "Tormented," dancers embody the emotions of the women persecuted during the Salem Witch
Trials, and "Song of the Shepherdess" centers on cross-cultural female entrepreneurship as inspired by the shepherdesses of Bulgaria. The show will end with "Gold," in which the dancers, costumed in mining helmets and lights, will combine aggressive fist pumps (mimicking the efforts of the miners), with acrobatic rolls and more traditional plies and releves in what promises to be a magical performance.
See the Modern Dance Company perform this Saturday at 8 p.m. in Shriver Hall. For tickets and information e-mail dance@jhu.edu.
