 "Photo: Courtesy of Stephanie Matthews Photography")
One of the fun things about going to a drive-in movie is watching two incredibly different movies in one night.
This weekend Ohio State's department of dance will be showcasing its own double feature.
The show, Dance Downtown Rocks, will feature two different and distinct dances,"The Vernon Reid Project" and "Set and Reset/Reset."
"This isn't just about dance, it's about rock and roll," said Bebe Miller, a professor of dance and one of the four choreographers of "The Vernon Reid Project."
Instead of using standard recorded music, "The Vernon Reid Project" features 27 dancers performing to the live music of rock guitarist Vernon Reid and his New York City band, Masque.
Jaclyn Thompson, a third-year graduate student in dance, said it is always exciting dancing to a live band.
"You never quite know what you're going to get," she said. "The musicians could improvise on the spot, increase or decrease the tempo or play an extended version of their songs. No matter what happens, the dancers must keep performing."
Miller agreed.
"We want to just hope for and trust that the dancers are able to keep both their hearts and their minds on overdrive," she said.
Miller said there may be four different choreographers, but the performance is not separated into four different pieces. Instead, the choreographers each created their own piece to interlace throughout the show.
"We're putting our parts together in an interwoven pattern," she said. "It feels more like a string of choreography. It's all kind of the same 45-minute piece."
To help add to the eclectic and rock feel of the music, the dancers will be trading in their tutus for jeans, Thompson said.
"One of the things we're celebrating in this piece is imagination and experimentation," Miller said. "At the ground level that's what life and art-making are for."
In "Set and Reset/Reset," directed by visiting faculty member Abigail Yager, 11 OSU dancers borrowed concepts from an original choreography by Trisha Brown.
The students followed Brown's concept of learning a "phrase" of dance, or a sequence of movements; however, to put their own unique spin on the performance, they used improvisational skills to create a new choreography using this sequence, according to an e-mail from Yager.
The design and costumes all contribute to the layered, interpretive effect of the dance.
A folded, translucent fly screen is used to cast a multi-layered, "suspended smoke look" over the stage, said Jeff Haase, one of the set designers and an associate professor in the department of design.
The costumes, which are modeled after the original costumes, are white, sheer silk and feature black graphics hand painted by Nadine Spray of the dance department.
Dance Downtown Rocks opens at 8 p.m. Thursday at the Riffe Center's Capitol Theatre and will continue through Friday and Saturday. Tickets are $17 for general admission and $12 for students and seniors.
Erin Pompili can be reached at pompili.5@osu.edu.
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