A residency throughout spring semester 2010 is taking place among four partners – Diavolo Dance Theater (Los Angeles, CA), Ordway Center for the Performing Arts, University of St. Thomas (UST), and Macalester College (Saint Paul, MN). The goal of the project is to create an arts experience that positively influences university students of arts and non-arts fields, using critical and creative thinking and inter-disciplinary collaborations.
The project combines work of the University of St. Thomas Engineering Department and Macalester College Dance Department, guided by the artistic direction and aesthetic of Diavolo. Engineering students proposed initial designs for a set piece to Diavolo, received feedback from the company, and then finalized their designs. One design from the class was chosen and constructed for the group of twenty Macalester and UST dancers. Jacques Heim, Artistic Director of Diavolo, along with Diavolo company members, guided the twenty dancers through an intensive dance rehearsal week, choreographing a dance around the constructed set piece. In the following month, three Macalester and UST lead dancers directed the final rehearsals, with continued direction from Diavolo.
The final performance of the dance piece will take place as a part of the Macalester Spring Dance Concert on the Macalester campus (Janet Wallace Fine Arts building). There will be three performances:
Friday, April 30 (7:30pm)
Saturday, May 1 (7:30pm)
Sunday, May 2 (2pm)
The goals of this project are to:
• Bring together “arts” and “science” students for an interdisciplinary collaboration
• Provide students the experience of working in a professional dance setting
• Engage students with Diavolo’s unique aesthetic approach, exploring the relationships of people and objects
• Utilize students’ existing skills (in movement and engineering) in the creation of a work of art.
• Create a stage-worthy physical object (set) to be used in performance
• Create a final dance piece
