Midsummer Night’s Dream

USC Center for Experimental Theatre offered free performances to the public at the old ROTC gym on the historic Columbia campus, just off the horseshoe. The gym served as an informal venue for the play and allowed for an expansive staging area and experimental set. The transformation of the space was magical, with suspension ropes for the fairies and a floating stage which served for Oberon and Tatiana’s monologues, as well as the play within-the-play at the end. Cast members switched roles and costumes back and forth throughout the duration of the play, challenging their adaptability to different roles, and their credibility, as the audience is forced to suspend belief from scene to scene. Oberon and Tatian’s worlds were contrasted with the lovers’ in more ways than one, making the audience feel as if they could see the layers of both metaphysical and physical.

Director Steven Pearson directed the production, in collaboration with Professor Robyn Hunt, co-director of Pacific Performance Project/east. Hunt brought some of Pacific Performance Projection/east’s  “synthesis of the core of Suzuki training, modern dance, slow tempo, circus technique, silent narrative and fresh response to Stanislavski’s ideas” to the production.  Hunt starred as Tatiana with guest actors Eric Bultman, Melissa Peters, Paul Kaufmann, who led the cast of MFA and undergraduate acting students. Hunt presented a sparkling Hermoni-esque Tatiana, while Bultman brought something unique to the role of Oberon. With his austere gaze and commanding presence, one would think this metal-clad, bungee-climbing Oberon had climbed out of a Batman movie rather than a fairytale.

Full of laughs and suspension, literally, this Midsummer is the most unique I have seen yet.  Don’t miss this free performance offered by SC Department of Theatre and Dance, in conjunction with Pacific Performance Project/east. Free to the public, April 11-22 at 8pm, Hamilton Gym.

Eric Bultman is Oberon
Photo by Mark Green.

Light at the End of the Tunnel

I have had so many wonderful things happen this last semester, but too little time to blog. When I’m not writing stories and papers to finish up this English degree, I’m dancing or choreographing…

I have had the privilege to perform a lot with USC Dance Company my last semester: in Thaddeus Davis’ It’s Getting Heavy and in Helen Pickett’s February 14, 2012, both original works created on us. Then in the Ballet Stars of NY gala and performance which I also helped Susan and the Board of USC Dance behind the scenes fundraising, George Balanchine’s Faust form Walpurgisnacht and Who Cares? This last performance was bittersweet, as I don’t know when I’ll ever perform Balanchine rep again, or on pointe, for that matter. Two weeks ago we took fellow senior Caitlin McCormack’s Four to ACDFA Southeastern Conference in Albany, GA, where it placed in the gala. Also, we took a clipped version of Thaddeus’ piece. Next weekend we’ll perform a selection of student choreography for Embodied, USC Dance’s Student Choreography Showcase. Caitlin’s piece Four will again be featured as will be my third piece of choreography at USC, Asylum, a collaboration with five other dancers set to music by Apocalyptica. I couldn’t have done it without them; we all shared equally in the choreographic process, which is what I wanted to happen. I’m so proud of them, and am so glad to be able to work with such talented young artists.

For photo gallery attached to this post, visit my personal blog, introspectiondance.

Maria Kowroski and Amar Ramascar graced our stage in Apollo.

Student Choreography Showcase

It was a pleasure to see fellow USC dancers in the student choreography showcase tonight. I almost didn’t go because of the overwhelming finals bog. This time I didn’t have a piece in the show neither was I performing. There was a great deal of competition to get into the showcase, and there were some really creative and polished pieces of choreography this semester.

I was inspired from my peers. Their creativity was phenomenal, especially among the other girls in Thaddeus’ choreography II class. The class will present our own showcase, Projecting the Process, Sunday at McKissick Museum. My work, XIV will be on the program.

Thaddeus’ choreography classes have opened up doors for me I hadn’t thought possible. I distrusted myself with choreographing before, which is absurd, because it comes so naturally and I have wanted to create dances since I was 4 years old. In elementary school and middle school, I choreographed my own pieces for talent shows (and choreographed on my little sister too, however unwillingly). I have come a long way since then, but I had to find that childlike creativity again. Now literature and grander concepts and ideas inform my choreography, but it took years for me to harness that creativity again, Why did I not think it was ok? I had to be broken of my ballet career mindset, go off to study English and realized that all I still wanted to do was dance, and come back and delve into studying dance with a more open mind at university. I am so grateful for this university experience and Thaddeus and Tanya, or who knows when I would have found my creative voice again. And then it took me two years to find it. I didn’t start choreographing or even being in other dancer’s choreographic endeavors until my last two years of college. And now it has come and gone so fast… and papers and exams for other classes, and work and bills fill up my time… I’d rather spend all my time creating.

I want to continue creating dances and feeding my mind with as much inspiration and creative opportunities as possible, but where? I have one semester left in the safety of the university bubble. It won’t be as easy from here on out.

Going back to see Wideman Davis Dance Voypas at 8pm at Drayton Hall for some inspiration…

A Streetcar Named Desire

Drayton Hall Theatre

October 1, 2011

USC Theatre Company opened A Streetcar Named Desire at Drayton Hall on Friday. The play runs through October 8 and is part of the Tennessee Williams Festival to celebrate the playwright’s 100th birthday. The festival also includes An Evening of One Acts, October 5-8 at Longstreet Theatre. Set in New Orleans where Williams was living when he wrote it, the Pulitzer Prize-winning play A Streetcar Named Desire takes place in a culturally diverse corner of America after World War II where, ironically, domestic Americans were ready to experience peace and prosperity. The play addresses the brutal realities and domestic horrors of post-World War II America.

The play opens with Blanch DuBois coming to stay with her sister in Louisianna after having lost the family plantation Belle Reve in Mississippi. Her sister Stella’s husband is angered by the news of his misfortune at the hands of his wife’s foolish sister, and automatically assumes she has lost it due to her own frivolities. Pitted against her sister’s harsh husband Stanly, the innocent Southern Belle begins to crack under her own unfortunate circumstances and haunting background. She cannot rise to meet the truth, but Williams does, after a cataclysmic sequence of events that go from bad to worse for poor Blanche.

Director Chris Clavelli casting for the play was spot-on. This is the first time the play has been cast with two African-American women as the lead sisters, Yvonne Senat as Blanche DuBois and Jessi Noel as her sister Stella Kowalski. The two illustrious actresses, both MFA theatre students, carried the plot seamlessly along with fellow MFA students Joe Mallon as Stan Kowlaski and Sam Kinsman as Mitch. “It is a very original cast and truly the most South Carolinian version of the play,” said Clavelli.

Joe Mallon gave a riveting performance as Stanley Kowalski, with all the ferocity of Marlon Brando’s character in the 1951 film adaptation. Yet when asked if he tried to imitate Brando, Mallon said he tried to stay away from the film. “I tried to make the role my own,” said Mallon. “It is one of my dream roles. The parts are so meaty.” Stanly Kowaski, a Polish-American in the play, has a streak of brutality, yet each time he feels regret and cries in hi wife, Stella’s lap, she takes him back, so does the audience. When asked how he felt about playing the villain, Mallon beamed, “Playing a bad guy is awesome. He has such a big presence.”

That also goes for the rest of the cast. Yvonne Senat rose to meet the demanding role as Blanche Dubois. The impulsive, attention-seeking Blanche is onstage nearly the entire play, with an almost constant stream of words and spinning dreams out of diffusing enchantments. An emotion-strewn role, she handled it with ease and originality. She comes to stay with her sister in New Orleans out of desperation, hoping to find her last chance in a world that is hostile to her. Her intentions are good towards Mitch (Sam Kinsman) although desperate, but she cannot get out from under lies that have woven her reputation, and neither Mitch nor Stanley are ready to give her any grace. Williams was a master at creating complicated characters and many of his characters are semi-autobiographical. Today one would describe Blanche’s character as bi-polar, and it is likely that Blanche’s character was based on his sister who was mentally ill.

Director Chris Clavelli said his idea behind the setting was to bring the audience as close to it as possible and seat them right in the action. “I wanted it to be dirty, not pure,” said Clavelli. The reality of the damp and dusty two-room house and dark corridor outside contrasts the dreamy backdrop which Clavelli and cast call “Blanche world”. Indeed, the shades of swirling blues and purples on the backdrop  seem to have emerged from Blanche’s magical dressing box.

Williams’ masterpiece is a convalescence of deceit, lies, abuse, forgery, and mental instability that does not tie up happily in the end. Much like his own life, Williams’ characters deal with the mental and emotional strain in their lives with alcohol and sexual rampage. Rape and homosexuality emerge, as they do in most of his plays. Although Williams struggled with his own sexuality, this is the most overtly he treated the topic in his plays. “It’s a brutal play, there’s no question about that,” says Streetcar director Chris Clavelli. For more information and tickets, log onto the theatre website http://www.cas.sc.edu/THEA/ or visit the Drayton hall box office two hours before performance.

Palmetto Pointe Project

Local photographer captures spirit of ballerinas amid Columbia’s landscape

By Rebecca Krumel

Jason Ayer is a Columbia native and creator of the Palmetto Pointe Project which will be highlighted starting this Friday at Cool Beans through November 4. His unique and captivating photography collection showcases local dancers in unconventional settings far from the confines of the dance studio.

When asked why he chose to photograph dancers, he laughs and says, “Taking pictures of beautiful women is never a bad thing!” But, the father of two added jokingly, “If I were twenty years younger I’d do it for the women; now I do it for the art.”

Ayer’s interest in photographing dancers began as a high school student in Charleston. He did technical work for the Youth Company in Charleston, and moved back to Columbia in the 1980′s and tried his hand in theatre by performing dance and musical roles at Workshop Theater for a decade. “I did a little bit of everything–singing, dancing, and acting.” Now, Ayer is the photographer for the USC Dance Program as well as the Coquettes.

At first glance, the Palmetto Pointe Project is reminiscent of New York’s Ballerina Project which has received widespread recognition from the Wall Street Journal to the Australian ballet blog Behind Ballet. Quite popular on Facebook, The Ballerina Project is inspiring photographers nationwide, although Ayer says his aim is not to mimic the successful venture which focuses on photographing dancers amid elaborate cityscape. His artistic vision spotlights the dancer rather than the setting. “In The Ballerina Project, the landscape often overpowers the dancer,” he says. Ayer prefers to match the setting to the dancer by drawing out their personality in each image, or for a more bold approach, taking them out of their element. Ayers’ process for a typical photo shoot involves meeting with the dancer at a location in the Columbia area, and then focusing his lens as her inner creative spirit is revealed through choreography and movement.

Ayer seeks to get the dancers involved in the creative process as much as possible. “What ends up on the canvas relies on them.” He says dance photography is about capturing the personality of the dancer, and oftentimes this is achieved by placing them in settings that may contradict their personality or challenge their creativity. Not only do the dancers drive the photo shoot with their artistry, they are given the final say on all the photographs. Ayers will not display an image that the dancer has not previously approved. “If the dancer doesn’t like it then I’m not going to use it.” The dancer also shares in the profits of any images sold in which they appear.

Ayer and his ballerina subjects are making something unique to Columbia. His photographs are site-specific and therefore nostalgic for Columbians. Palmetto Pointe Project is uniquely South Carolinian and true to the artistic setting and lives of the dancers it portrays. His slogan is, “See some familiar and not-so-familiar places in Columbia through the eyes of a dancer.” While he seeks out niches of Columbia for his backdrops, the dancers are central to the art. Each image is named for the dancer and not the place. Most of his subjects are performers with the USC Dance Company, but Ayers is interested in expanding the project to include other local dance companies as well.

Goals for the project include a website (already underway), a calendar, and you can check out Palmetto Pointe Project on Facebook now. Friday’s opening will offer the public a chance to meet Ayers, purchase his prints, and meet the dancers featured in his new photographic works.

 

Oleanna

Venue: USC Lab Theatre

September 16-18, 2011

If you leave the theatre thinking, “I don’t know” after this play, that’s the point. The Lab Theatre at USC always delivers thought-provoking performances, and this is definitely one. David Mamet’s drama centers around two characters – the only actors in the play: one a professor, the other his female student who accuses him of sexual harassment. The accusation happens offstage, and between the first and second act the student takes an entirely different role. She switches from the struggling student who doesn’t understand to the one who “understands” and wields power over him. The concepts the professor tries to convey in his class are those that he thinks will be beneficial to this student, if he can make her understand… but he steps onto a slippery slope when he asks her to come to his office and offers to begin the course over with him in private so that she can make an “A”. Although his intentions were well-intended, in this world of hyper-sensitive feminist equality, any slight condescension to a female can be taken as sexist and chauvinist. His mutual understanding of her struggle quickly turns into empathy when she begins to cry in his office. It is the moment that he tries to physically console her, and again when his frustration turns to rage, that will cost  the professor his tidy life he has worked up to the top ring of the education institutional ladder to achieve. All this because of a couple careless actions. Yet as an audience we empathize with her as well, forced to listen to his personal rampage. As we should – what student would want to hear him declare the institution of higher education is a waste of time, yet proceed to justify his tenure position? These are part of the aggravations the students takes into her own hand to “teach him a lesson” when she suddenly gets smart and realizes she has power over his tenure committee – with the help of his superiors and lawyers. This power struggle becomes about more than the institution of higher education, which the professor is questioning in the first act, and more a power struggle of the sexes. Where must the line lien in hetero-gender higher education systems? Where the line should be drawn between the student/professor relationships can become complicated when the professor wants his students to relate to him and vice-versa. When is it appropriate for the teacher to try to help student who is struggling by taking a personal interest in them or attempting to take them under his wing when he sees something common with them? How long must this communication gap exist among the sexes in formal settings? Whose word do you take when things happen behind closed doors? These are just some of the questions Mamet brings up in Oleanna. The New York Times is quoted to have said that this short drama “evokes, however crudely, what one might wish to escape from: a sexual battleground where trust and even rational human discourse between men and women are in grave jeopardy.”

Chopin always sounds best with your eyes closed…

Venue: Southeastern Piano Festival Arthur Fraser International Concerto Competition Winner’s Concert

Where: USC School of Music, Saturday June 18, 2011

From an amateur’s perspective, the piano festival winners were outlandish –and young. Their youth did not diminish the quality of music I heard from their fingertips tonight. I left impressed, humming a mimic tune of Beethoven’s Sonata in C Major, or something close to it. What was it about? I asked myself as Vanessa Haynes and her accompanist Charles Fugo played the Rondo Allegretto moderato… so moving, so powerful…words cannot describe. That is why we have music, isn’t it? Music speaks a wealth that words cannot. Surely there will be magnificent grand pianos in heaven.

I believe that classical musicians have minds like actors in Shakespearian plays – they memorize long lines, the actions and feelings and movements and underlying meaning that goes with it – they inspire poets, they create dances within the cells of their body. That is what I observed with each of these talented young pianists. Andrew Tung, the opener of the concert, played Beethoven’s Sonata in C Major, Allegro con brio with the charisma of an orator – but he was more believable, more trustworthy – why? He had a personal, honest relationship with his instrument, and the audience could see it. I was likewise impressed with Ms Allison Freeman, the Chopin performer of the night. The weaving dips and circular patterns she made with her body amassed the tumult of voices and feelings the piece had to offer. She too was one with her instrument, the mark of a good pianist, I would venture to say – one who is capable of transporting his audience to another place and another time. Or, one who lifts the spirit of the entire room like William Bolcom’s Old Adam from Garden of Eden played by Francisco Chomnalez.

Life is tumultuous, and the piano scores of these famous composers reflect that. Listening to these young pianists re-ignite the composers’ passions and sentiments makes me wonder what their lives were like and what they experienced before they could write such a piece.  Beethoven had a short life, a life full of early report, yes, but doubtless he experienced hardship with the death of his mother and supporting his younger brothers, rage and disappointment when Bonaparte declared himself emperor, anger and frustration at his early deafness and unrequited love – things that he experienced are not dissimilar to things we go through today, just one more reason why these classic symphonies never die.

The winner of the evening, Zachary Hughes, executed Debusse’s L-isle joyeuse with perfect rhapsody. I saw his gaze directed through and across the grand piano into a distant memory of seemingly past love or past novelty. He had the advantage over the others of being older, yet still quite a young man. He FELT the music in a way that made him seem sage and experienced; I could see in him the difference between passion and technique that defines artists. I recognized in his pronounced use of dynamics how vital that is to the execution of a piece of music and to the emotional overtone.  This young man let his passion spill over for his audience, allowing us at once to see his rapture as well as share in it. I cannot explain to you the value of the experience; it’s a transitory treasure which drives me to write about it and attempt to share it. I would rather let the moment drive me to write, just as the music compels my dancing, than try to write something out of thin air. That is why so often lately I have failed to write about the performances I have been to. The trouble with that is it is soon lost to my senses two hours later when I sit down to write. Give me one more attempt to get back to a moment in the evening and sum it up:

Chopin is best heard with your eyes closed – there is no way to take in the tumult of emotions his music creates without giving heed to solely that one sense… The swell of the piano enlivens such splendid peace one moment, a violent bashing storm the next! Music reflects life’s swells and dips, the secrets that hide beneath the surface wanting to escape… Secrets hide behind the ballades, but in the moment the artist revisits the composition with fervor, the secret is alive and exposed and it is momentarily free. The beauty of a secret exposed and set free is so beautiful… I believe every man or woman is capable of beauty. God made him, so that essence is inherent.

Fundraising Gala, Flamenco, Future Prospects

Our annual fundraiser – this was the first time I was involved in putting it together, more than I ever intended to be. The first USC Dance gala I experienced was when the program was 3 years old, in 2008 when I performed as a guest shortly after leaving Columbia City Ballet – we had the third annual fund-raising gala on the Koger Center stage after the NYCB performance. The next year, 2009, I was actually enrolled in the university, and the gala and performance were in celebration of opening a new building, a huge accomplishment for the program and Susan Anderson.  In 2010 I missed the gala and the NYCB performance because I was studying abroad, which was well-worth it, as an understatement.  I had become tired of the program and frustrated by my seemingly futile persistence to keep dancing in college. This year I was not expecting to be one of the organizers of the whole shebang – I was a simple work study student in the dance department director’s office, which had already proved to be a far bigger job than the title entailed.

Nonetheless, I was glad to have work. I will refrain from all the details, but putting on a gala to impress and draw to wealthy donors is one hell of a lot of work! And exhausting! Being organized a bit better would have helped… I really learned to appreciate all that Susan has done for the program. I did feel dumped on, however… and did a lot more work than my job title should include… but that is something that does not need to be extrapolated on.  It’s not like I wasn’t in school and didn’t already have 3 part time jobs! In the end, Come Dance With US(C) turned out better than I expected, and we raised a lot of scholarship money for the department; I just wish a large chunk of it would go to me.

Unfortunately working at the Dance Department has not led me to be able to dance more, eve though I am always “present” and in their view. But that is no one’s fault but my own either…I just can’t do everything! I still would rather be dancing than working in the office…but I have to pay the rent somehow, and at least I get to be surrounded by it all… I take that back. I’d rather not be surrounded by it all. Detachment from all the drama and stress surrounding the dance world has always been my safe haven. To add to that vagueness and complexity I just put on the page, I was told in evaluations I distance myself too much from the other dancers and need to be more a part of the “group”  – although that context is in technique class, where I try to escape from the monotony of the day. It’s nice to have something familiar I can return to and ground myself in, and to be able to take ballet or modern class with respected staff while getting my degree – I don’t know if I’ll be able to do that after I graduate.  I need to not force myself into a desk job or something I think would be a “good decision” after college, because I will hate it if I cannot be dancing. Again, I would rather be dancing…

The best part of the night was the flamenco dancers, Jose de Guadalupe and Rina Menosky. Jose has formed his own flamenco dance performing company, Flamenco Arts, consisting of himself and his partner. His pianist, Richard A. Smith, came with them from Greenville, SC.  I was responsibility for getting many of the guest performers and musicians to come, and I was already excited about seeing real flamenco dancers after my reconstruction and research project into it. I stood gripping poor Lauren’s arm during their performance.  Both of them were stunning, captivating, fierce, sexy, thrilling, shocking, seductive and powerful artists on that stage.  Their performance fueled the fire in me to learn this newly discovered dance passion. I regret not learning flamenco from my ballet instructors and contacts in Albuquerque growing up, but it’s never to late. And if  I want to find a new challenge in a dance form other than ballet for the future of my dancing life, flamenco holds that challenge. 

I have been rolling this over in my head for a few weeks now, and from both the project on flamenco in Dr. Parrish’s class, to watching and talking to Jose and Rina, to my research into Spanish guitar and interviews with guitar professor Christopher Berg, not to mention my visit to Spain, background in New Mexican culture, and inclination to use my analytical skills in combination with writing and the physicality of movement, I have decided to gear my Fulbright proposal for grad school in Dance Anthropology in the UK to further research into Flamenco and Spanish cultural dance. I am interested in the cultures of many different people groups, but mostly what role dance plays in that. I would to find a challenge to dig up a culturally rich dance form, and learn to dance it, master to the art form, travel, and write about dance and my adventures. Wouldn’t that be the most ideal job?! I think I am slowly coming closer to my ideal job… all hypothetical. I wonder who I could find to pay me to write a Dancing version of the Lonely Planet? When you see it on bookshelves (or in Kindle websites or whatever) you better believe it was me!

6th Annual NYC Ballet Gala with USC Dance Company

Sara Mearns rehearsing “Western Symphony” with USC Dance Co. March 18, 2011

It’s been two weeks from the show and I am just now getting time to settle down and write my reflection…

Sara Mearns was exceptional and outshone all the dancers on stage. She has just been promoted to principle dancer with NYCB after all. She deserves all sorts of recognition – she is a master mistress at her craft; fully, 110% dedicated to it, something I never seemed to be able to maintain…and she is stunning. gorgeous. real and tangible, not ethereal, which makes her that much more likable and enjoyable to watch on stage, and she is thin, strong and embodies ballet dancer to the very tips of her fingernails and eyelashes. She danced out of every inch of her body. Nothing is forgotten. Music is made by her – or her movement made by it, I’m not certain which. I could rave about her on and on, and I am not even one who knows her personally or can claim any tie to her growing up in Columbia, SC or beginning her ballet roots here and attending the university’s dance conservatory as the dance department at USC likes to boast, but I appreciate her nonetheless. I say “appreciate” because I am trying to distinguish for myself my new mentality of appreciating ballet stars at somewhat of a safe distance rather than idolize them as I did when I was a striving dancer. That dangerous line I am drawing for myself distances me even further from ever pursuing a dance career again; regardless of how impossible it seems. I like to remind myself that if I found it in myself to emotionally, physically and financially commit to my craft 100% again, I could be back in the running for a professional career. It would take me losing weight finally and for good, and really committing – which I can’t do now because I am in school trying to finish my degree, I work 3 or 4 part time jobs, and I live in the deep South…. after all that, I have to remind myself of what I have come to accept as taking responsibility of my own foiled dance career – that I do not want and cannot sustain that lifestyle – and perhaps the reality that I never fully wanted it. But I was young and naive then… So enough of this somber reflection and regret. I am still dancing, and that’s what matters. I will never be Sara Mearns, and my body is far from the shape she is in now, but I have had other valuable life experiences outside of the narrow ballet world that she will never have that I treasure and would not trade, not even for an illustrious career with NYCB… Well…

It amazes me the power a desire so strong can have over me — that from the age of 9 or 10 when I decided I seriously wanted to pursue dance as a career, it took over me — and it may take just as many years to undo its power. I would not undo its influence and passion; just its obsessive control and lack thereof and the pain it has caused me. but no more of this sentimental vague reflection. I praise God He has given me back my dancing and I pray He continues to give it back tri-fold as I seek to honor Him with the ways He has given it back to me, even if it’s not the way I imagined it. Success does not make one happy always. God’s plans are better than our plans. Recognition does not supply fulfillment.

 

Innovative Works Without Bounds (for print)

Feb. 9-12, 2011

Drayton Hall

Innovative Works Without Bounds by USC Dance Company showcased 4 pieces by Thaddeus Davis and Tanya Wideman-Davis, both  faculty-in-residence at USC Dance, Detroit native Nathan Trice, and a reconstruction of David Parson’s Etude.

Trice set his piece Gold Rush on a considerably younger cast of the company, and they did a phenomenal job tackling his intricate developmental choreography. Trice’s succinct, no-fooling attitude in the studio, can perhaps be explained by his background in the navy. Trice didn’t start dancing until college, and after completing two years in the navy, he rose quickly to become a nationally acclaimed choreographer and artistic director of Nathan Trice/Rituals dance project-by-project theater based in NYC.

The showcase lasted scarcely an hour; however, it engaged the audience every minute, sometimes much to their surprise. Nathan Trice’s Gold Rush and Tanya Wideman-Davis’ Back Door Parole each opened an act, followed by the more light-hearted pieces Parson’s Etude and Davis’ Let All the Fools Stand in Line.  The latter was visually pleasing because of its strong classical ballet connection, with long lines, pointe shoes and a pas de deux couple surrounded by a cast of leggy girls.

The Daily Gamecock called Tanya Wideman Davis’ Back Door Parole  “most controversial”.  Set in a women’s corrections facility, the piece aims to examine the realities of living as an accused convict, among convicts.  “Women are competitive, even in prison” said Wideman-Davis, who became interested researching the topic by watching CSI, “and I wanted to show that.”  “Prison is not a safe place for these women”, she said; “any simple tool can be fashioned into a weapon. The tool Olivia uses to kill Ashley is a comb for brushing hair.”

The build-up to the death scene was even more intense on stage than in rehearsal  - with the lights, music, and prison garb, the effect the girls’ voices had as they screeched and shouted their numbers at the audience at various points during the dance was chilling. The first scream by Margaret Rambo shocked the audience, and Mindy Chester’s hysterical laughter made the audience twitch in their seats. Olivia Anderson,  who took on the role of ring leader and murderer within the prison, said she had to step away from it as she left the studio each day and remind herself: “That’s not who I am.” Both Chester and Anderson rose to the occasion and made the character’s role believable.

Without Bounds showcased the dancers’ artistry even more than the classical ballet productions. The dancers rose to the challenge of being given a short time to create and learn the choreography in a few short weeks, putting new styles of movement into their bodies and giving their roles character. USC dancers are not only technically strong ballet dancers; they can adapt to any dance form thrown at them, including becoming actors and actresses and screaming onstage!