OHIO’s School of Dance presents the 2019 Fall Senior Dance concert, “The Sensing Body”

Ohio University School of Dance presents its annual Fall Senior Dance concert, “The Sensing Body,” a culminating project for Bachelor of Fine Arts dance majors.

Seven seniors employ their unique perspectives in their newly created choreographic works that will be presented from Nov. 21–23 at 7 and 9 p.m. in the Shirley Wimmer Dance Theater in Putnam Hall.

“Felt forms,” choreographed by Lexi Bell accompanied by Michael Wall’s Ritual, Reverence & Confessions,” draws inspiration from the sculpture Generacion by Max Leiva. Bell’s newest work explores the human-like qualities within the bronze sculpture, while simultaneously mining the human connections between the sculpture and the dance.

Kassie Keil’s solo work, “In the Blue Dark,” mines the embodied experiences of fear and the accompanying haunting memories. Morgan Sieg’s original score for the vibraphone casts a creepy and eerie environment for the piece.

A vessel between the past, present, and future, Ke’Aysia Middlebrooks’ solo, “being.,” uses a sense of fall and recovery to explore the feeling of peace after hardship. The atmosphere is golden and warm with an ambient soundscape.

“Angler,” a group work choreographed by Cierra Hill, pairs with Joseph Beg’s meditative sound score to contrast the dynamic and rhythmic bodies moving through spatial constructs. These force change and adaptation that explore the active shaping and spacing.

Maya Holcomb’s work “I Need Spaces” is a self-constructed dance for camera exploring how to find space for herself in a society overflowing with material objects. To collaged recordings of Appalachian community members speaking about their personal possessions, Maya negotiates her body in and around tight spaces packed with household, construction, and personal items.

Community gives a sense of belonging and safety. “1 standing in the middle” explores how community is felt by moving in step with others. The fluctuating speeds and shifts of the group’s movement challenges the identity of one and creates a net for all to be a part. A group dance work by Brittany “Bert” Hawthorne, the soundscape of creaky floors and soft, eerie classical instruments fill the space, creating a coalescing soundscape.

In her self-choreographed solo, “Between Beings,” Riley Murray moves and manipulates the earth until realizing that, in doing so, she has destroyed the very thing that allows her to live. Restricted to a dirt landscape delineated by a six-inch by nine-inch cloth, she experiences glimpses of serenity. Reaching up and out of the soil, but through more contact with it, she becomes weighted, confined, and unstable. The accompaniment, comprised of various sampled found sounds and musical score by composer Borgar Maganason, fills the space with an ominous yet calming soundscape.

Ticket reservations for the Fall Senior Dance concert can be made by calling the Templeton-Blackburn Memorial Auditorium ticket office at 740- 593-1780. General admission is $10, and students are free with an OHIO student id, through support from Arts for OHIO.