Randolph College concert to showcase many dance forms

The fast food experience as dance?

Indeed. “Thank You, Please Come Again …” is the name of Randolph College senior Sarah Blane’s senior choreography project, and it’s based on her experience working in a fast food restaurant.

Blane’s piece is one of those featured in Randolph’s Annual Spring Dance Concert, set for April 16, 17 and 18.

“I think people have this idea of what dance is,” said another senior, Darian Butcher. “Since every piece we have in the show is so different, it breaks those stereotypes or people’s standard definitions of what dance can be.”

Butcher’s own piece is “In Flux,” as an examination and celebration of an all-female community. Butcher said the audience will benefit from coming to see the different varieties of dance in the concert.

The annual concert will showcase many forms of dance, from baroque to modern, including works from dance legends and Randolph students.

Some of the dances mix media.

Diane Gray, a visiting artist at the dance department, choreographed “For the Beauty of the Earth,” which will incorporate film and dance on the stage. The piece also includes a dance student’s 7-year-old daughter. Gray said the students couldn’t have been more pleasant to work with.

“(The students) work really hard; I’ve been so impressed with them this year, how much they’ve really devoted themselves,” she said.

Clay Taliaferro, a visiting artist at the dance department, reconstructed a suite from Jose Limon’s “There is a Time.” Taliaferro said the work is based on the Bible’s Ecclesiastes, and he picked certain sections that related to the students regarding what it takes to become a professional dancer. He said the work also relates to the changes at Randolph College over the past few years.

“Jose (Limon) built this circle, as the kids picked it up immediately, it’s the essence of democracy,” Taliaferro said. “It doesn’t work if one person is pouting, because the others can feel it. Those built-in things, that’s why we chose the piece. It’s maybe a healing agent to this new co-ed situation.”

Pamela Risenhoover, chair of the dance department, said the symbolism of the circle in “There is a Time” is a “way of trying to bring people together and kind of moving on, resolving.”

Risenhoover said with the struggling economy, art is more important. She said during the 1930s, some of the United States’ best art flourished.

“Arts are not just frivolous,” Risenhoover said. “During a difficult time, art gives us beauty and help us process what we’re going through.”