The concert reinforces the wonderful relationships in the Department of Dance, on and off campus. Two Great Works dances, two guest artist pieces, four faculty works, and three dances by student choreographers will be featured in the concert.
Jesse Hoisington (senior, Dance—at left in the photograph) will be one of three students to have their work featured in the concert. "What I'm most excited about is to be able to communicate with the audience, through movement, one one one. I have never performed a solo before, and to be able to do one now at the end of my career at Western is unbelievable," said Hoisington. "It is a great privilege to be performing my own work in a concert with so many brilliant choreographers. I can't even begin to express my gratitude to the faculty in the Department of Dance."
Other choreographers include Peter Chu, artistic director of chuthis; New York-based choreographer and performer Gabrielle Lamb; guest artists Eddy Ocampo and WMU alumna Marlo Martin; faculty members Kirsten Harvey, Sharon Garber, David Curwen, and Carolyn Pavlik; and students Connor Cornelius, Jesse Hoisington, and Emily Rayburn.
Hoisington, who will graduate in April, plans to move to the Big Apple to explore career opportunities as a performer, "Although I am definitely passionate about creating and choreographing, my dream right now is to perform and work with other choreographers to learn more… and further down the road a Master's degree doesn't sound bad."
The Winter Gala Dance concert will definitely be entertaining, but the best part is that it creates opportunities for students and faculty to work with guest artists, cross-campus collaboration, and for students to use gain real world experience creating something.
"I think this experience has definitely opened doors for a future in choreography, " said Hoisington. "Not only does it allow me great exposure, it has forced me to solidify who I am as an artist and how I want to represent myself on stage."
The Winter Gala Dance Concert will have several performances between Jan. 30 and Feb. 1. For more information, including ticketing information, please visit the Department of Dance website.
Hoisington is pictured at left during a previous performance at Western Michigan University.
About Hoisington's piece, A Biddable Breed: "This solo is an abstraction of someone's character who is very close to me. I have always been envious of their lackadaisical and apathetic pace through life. The main inspiration, however, comes from the way in which he moves. He has two speeds, extremely hyper—or not. He constantly slumps his limbs from place to place, allowing his joints to release and collapse in order to move. A lot of my movement revolves around the concept of collapsing the joints into the ground. While the other movement in this solo is an abstraction from his very lively and upbeat personality, a lot of movements come from my interpretation of how he constantly begs or prods until he gets his way—and how that would translate into movement."