ISU Bengal

Issue date: 9/12/07 Section: Life

Media Credit: Alisha Hatch Dantzel Cherry heads the group in sliding across the floor to practice for the dance sequence.

Last Friday, about 20 men and women had the opportunity to demonstrate their individualism through "expressive movement" as they auditioned to be selected for roles in the I~move dance company.
I~move holds dance auditions once a year and the auditions are open to faculty, students and the community.
The auditions are held in the magnificent, spacious two-year old dance studio. In a previous life the studio was a gym with a basketball hoop. Now the studio boasts maple spring floors, mirrors the length of the walls and sky high ceilings. It is a space large enough to accommodate the unreserved movements of the dancers as they auditioned. Prior to the audition, in the ballet studio, Cassi said that she wasn't nervous about the auditions, "this is my fourth year auditioning, and I know everyone, so I'm not really nervous. It's fun...I think of it more as a technique class".
David said he was not nervous about the auditions either. When asked what makes him want to dance, he responded, "you can be free…to express yourself."
When they entered the spacious studios dancers began warming up with various dance moves and stretches to prepare for the audition.
Components of the audition came in phases. The dancers did not need to come prepared with a practiced piece. Warm up exercises consisted of movement and interaction between the dancers intended to, according to co-director Rosa Vissers, "reduce inhibitions," which she claims is crucial in I~Move productions.
For these exercises, the dancers grasped each other's arms, pushed against shoulders and hands, changing partners. Then, director Laura Lee Zimmerly, Vissers and co-director Molly Jorgensen each led them in a series of choreographed movements.
When Vissers led her phase, she took position in front of four rows of dancers who faced her waiting to follow her movements. To the background music of classical with a techno twist, the dancers began to "chasse", which means, "chase" in French, across the wood floor executing various movements along the way.
Vissers referred to one of the movements as "playing with gravity". This movement consisted of the dancers quickly moving across the floor and without missing a beat allow their body to nearly fall.

Continued...

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