{"id":106468,"date":"2017-03-17T11:44:37","date_gmt":"2017-03-17T15:44:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/?p=106468"},"modified":"2023-11-21T11:08:17","modified_gmt":"2023-11-21T16:08:17","slug":"bates-at-night-senior-dance-thesis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/2017\/03\/17\/bates-at-night-senior-dance-thesis\/","title":{"rendered":"Bates at Night: Senior Dance Thesis"},"content":{"rendered":"

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On Thursday evening in the Black Box Theater, at the end of the labyrinth of hallways underneath Schaeffer Theatre, Laura Pietropaoli \u201917 was running the last rehearsal for her dance thesis.<\/p>\n

The space is intimate, but does pose challenges. \u201cIt\u2019s just a black box. And we wanted to find a way to soften it,\u201d Pietropaoli explained. To accomplish this, a dozen or so quilts and blankets are spread across the space. She continued, \u201cIt helps the dancers get a lot more comfortable.\u201d<\/p>\n

In her choreography, \u201cI wanted to explore what I learned from being at Bates as an academic and as a person,\u201d said Pietropaoli, a dance and rhetoric double major from Yarmouth, Maine. \u201cI wanted to make something that took into account everything that I\u2019ve learned as a dance student and made it into something that can reach anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n\t\n\t

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Blankets and quilts are spread across the Black Box space.<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t

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The ensemble watches a clip from John Ford's My Darling Clementine,<\/em> an influence on Pietropaoli's work.<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t

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Assistant Professor of Dance Rachel Boggia offers Pietropaoli her thoughts and critiques during a break.<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t

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Pietropaoli coaches Ellie Madwed '20 of Seattle, Wash., and Alex Eaton '17 of Lake Oswego, Ore.<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t

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Laura Pietropaoli '17 of Yarmouth, Maine, runs the final rehearsal of her dance thesis.<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t

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The piece, titled \u201cEnjoy Your Stay,\u201d is performed by a six-person ensemble, interspersing short dance pieces with abstract skits, akin to sketch comedy.<\/p>\n

Pietropaoli is also writing a research paper as a thesis component, focusing on artistic ensembles that blur the lines of social relationships and art making practice. As her faculty advisor Rachel Boggia observed, \u201cThere\u2019s this interesting line that they\u2019re always crossing between being performers and being themselves with each other in the piece, and I think that\u2019s coming through really beautifully.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ensemble also benefits from the thesis process. As Boggia explains, \u201cEvery thesis is not just a learning opportunity for the thesis student. The cast is also learning. We have future dance majors in this cast, so hopefully they\u2019re learning about choreography, about performance, and about the technical aspects.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pietropaoli has come to appreciate the demands of choreography. \u201cI\u2019ve learned a lot about how to direct my cast and advance my artistic vision,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

This vision is guided carefully by Boggia, who does not insert herself too much creatively. Recalling how Pietropaoli pushed back on some criticism, Boggia was proud. \u201cTo me that means she\u2019s really her own artist and she\u2019s seeing me as her adviser. And that was a nice moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEnjoy Your Stay\u201d opens tonight at 7:30, with additional shows throughout the weekend.<\/p>\n

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Bates at Night: Last rehearsal for Laura Pietropaoli ’17 and her dance thesis performance<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":148,"featured_media":106473,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_hide_ai_chatbot":false,"_ai_chatbot_style":"","associated_faculty":[],"_Page_Specific_Css":"","_bates_restrict_mod":false,"_table_of_contents_display":false,"_table_of_contents_location":"","_table_of_contents_disableSticky":false,"_is_featured":false,"footnotes":"","_bates_seo_meta_description":"","_bates_seo_block_robots":false,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_id":0,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_twitter_id":0,"_bates_seo_share_title":"","_bates_seo_canonical_overwrite":"","_bates_seo_twitter_template":""},"categories":[4,11010,133,14,223,11012],"tags":[11217,60,7842,10433],"class_list":["post-106468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academic-life","category-arts","category-creativity","category-faculty-staff","category-slideshow","category-student-life","tag-bates-at-night","tag-dance","tag-senior-thesis","tag-slideshow-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/148"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106468"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106468\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":106514,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106468\/revisions\/106514"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/106473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}