{"id":123974,"date":"2019-05-02T15:45:19","date_gmt":"2019-05-02T19:45:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/?p=123974"},"modified":"2024-07-01T15:49:35","modified_gmt":"2024-07-01T19:49:35","slug":"at-age-50-bates-modern-dance-is-still-the-same-awesome-experience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/2019\/05\/02\/at-age-50-bates-modern-dance-is-still-the-same-awesome-experience\/","title":{"rendered":"At age 50, Bates dance is still ‘the same awesome experience’"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Bates tradition\u00a0\u2014 springtime reunions among the college’s dance alumni \u2014 saw a new chapter this year.<\/p>\n

Like so many expressions of dance at Bates, the reunion tradition was begun by the late Marcy Plavin, the larger-than-life founder of the Bates Modern Dance Company and co-founder of the Bates Dance Festival.<\/p>\n

Plavin died in 2016, at age 84, and this year’s gathering was the first since her passing.<\/p>\n

Held April 26 to 28, the 2019 edition drew 70-plus alumni, from classes of the \u201970s on up, who returned to mark the 50th anniversary of the dance company\u2019s first performance under Plavin’s leadership, celebrate dance in their lives today, and look to the promising future of dance at Bates.<\/p>\n

\""It's<\/a>

Prior to one of the workshops on Saturday morning, Kathryn Ryan Brigham ’02 (left) greets Lynda Plavin Fitzgerald ’79, daughter of the late Marcy and Leonard Plavin. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>\n

The weekend, produced by Professor of Dance Carol Dilley with skilled help from Hannah Miller ’14, a veteran of prior dance reunions, featured workshops, performances, and discussions, both casual and guided.<\/p>\n

Over lunch on Saturday, alumni broke into groups to talk about how dance has infused their lives and work. \u201cWe\u2019ve never done this before,\u201d said Dilley, who succeeded Plavin in 2003 and led the effort to transform the dance program into an academic major in 2011.<\/p>\n

As noon approached, alumni milled around upstairs in Commons, talking quietly while grabbing brunch at the buffet spread. No doubt hungry following the morning\u2019s alumni-taught dance workshops, the dancers filled their plates and headed into three meeting rooms for discussion sessions sponsored by the Center for Purposeful Work.<\/p>\n

Each session had a theme \u2014 dance and activism, bodies at work, and dance as a mindset \u2014 and was moderated by students, who asked the alumni about their work and their lives at Bates, gleaning advice from their combined years of experiences. Though formal-sounding, the setup created spaces for easy conversation between the current and former students.<\/p>\n

\""It's<\/a>

On Saturday morning, Michael Foley ’89 led a workshop on dance for the over-40 set in the Marcy Plavin Dance Studios. “One of the big Batesisms is the intersectionality between all of your interests,\u201d he said. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>\n

In one session, moderators Helen Carr \u201921 of Tarrytown, N.Y., and Ellie Friends \u201921 of Deerfield, Mass., asked Ya-Ya Fairley \u201912, who had just taught a morning workshop on Afro house dance, and Talia Mason \u201915 how they\u2019ve been able to use their art as activism.<\/p>\n

A double major in dance and anthropology, Fairley, who uses the pronouns \u201cthey\u201d and \u201cthem,\u201d described setbacks while they earned a master\u2019s degree in performance from the University of Utah.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhatever I did was hyper-politicized because of the space I was in. Just the act of putting my ideas out there is inherently activist \u2014 and putting my black, trans, queer body in those spaces really embodied the act of activism.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\u201cGorgeous.\u201d.\u2014<\/a>

From left, Julie Yeterian \u201806, Yasmin “Ya-Ya” Fairley \u201812, Meredith Sallee \u201807, and Talia Mason \u201815 break into laughter during Fairley’s workshop on Afro house dance, held in Chase Hall. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>\n

Though facing flak from faculty who disapproved of their student\u2019s innovative and radical choreography, Fairley said the experience provided \u201ca healthy push\u201d for their personal artistry.<\/p>\n

Mason, a Phi Beta Kappa double major in dance and French at Bates, has a post-baccalaureate degree from the Headlong Performance Institute in Philadelphia, teaches dance at a Montessori school, and is a solo performance artist.<\/p>\n

Her activism is also intrinsically linked to her study of dance and performance. She is interested in depictions of Judaism in dance and asks questions about how art can confront anti-Semitism in America.<\/p>\n

\"Artemis<\/a>

Artemis Preeshl \u201984 contributed a dance workshop session on issues related to consent and safe rehearsal and performance spaces. (Samuel Mironko ’21 for Bates College)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cMaking work with an activist lens is more daunting in the real world than in college,\u201d acknowledged Mason, who is soon to begin a master of fine arts program in dance at the University of California, Riverside.<\/p>\n

In the \u201cBodies at Work\u201d session, choreographers, teachers, therapists, and producers told moderators Kellie Allen \u201921 of Pleasantville, N.Y., and Esme Goldfinger \u201921 of Portland, Maine, how Bates prepared them for their careers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no absolutely no way I would be the writer or researcher I am today if I hadn\u2019t been at Bates,\u201d said Artemis Preeshl \u201984, a visiting professor at Elon University who has taught acting, movement, and voice on five continents. Preeshl contributed a workshop session on \u201cMaking a Safe Rehearsal \/ Performance Space.”<\/p>\n

\"\u201cBates<\/a>

\u201cBates gave me a \u2018fight tooth and nail\u2019 attitude,\u201d said Jonathan Schwolsky \u201915, an independent filmmaker, theater director, and photographer. (Samuel Mironko ’21 for Bates College)<\/p><\/div>\n

A double major in theater and rhetoric, Jonathan Schwolsky \u201915 completed his theater thesis in the relatively obscure field of experimental comedy. \u201cThere were enough people here to support me to do that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the big Batesisms is the intersectionality between all of your interests,\u201d said Michael Foley \u201989, a professor of dance at the University of South Florida and director of the USF Dance in Paris program.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think much of the world is very monolithic,\u201d he said, reflecting on his experiences as a teacher and choreographer (including a whimsically named morning workshop, \u201cModern Dance for the \u2018Over 40s\u2019!!\u201d). \u201cThere\u2019s something about the intersectionality of Bates that I\u2019m constantly reflecting on. I\u2019m trying to incorporate this idea of egalitarianism about how people get a voice into my work.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"current<\/a>

During Saturday afternoon’s alumni and student performances, from left, Flannery Black-Ingersoll ’19, Shae Gwydir ’20, and Becca Howard ’19 perform “contact, just go,” a piece they choreographed in their advanced composition class. (Samuel Mironko ’21 for Bates College)<\/p><\/div>\n

As the noon sessions wrapped up, some alumni and students headed to another round of workshops; others mingled at the interactive dance archives exhibit in Gannett Theater that featured vintage costumes and performance programs from decades of Bates dance.<\/p>\n

\n

With support from the Muskie Archives and Special Collections Library, the exhibit was curated by two seniors, Sara Hollenberg, a double major in dance and mathematics from Stamford, Conn., and Rebecca Howard of Aspen, Colo., a double major in art and visual culture and religious studies with a minor in dance.<\/p>\n

\"In<\/a>

In Gannett Theater, Sara Hollenberg ’19 of Stamford, Conn., and Rebecca Howard ’19 of Aspen, Colo., pose among items that they curated for an interactive dance archives exhibition. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>\n

The project left Howard impressed by “both the depth and the breadth of what the Bates dance program has been.” It was also another way to honor Plavin: “a way to weave her memory in, in a permanent sense. And reminding people of that.”<\/p>\n

“Then you add to that with all these other alums who have shared the same awesome experience.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

For Hollenberg, the exhibit spoke to the many and surprising ways that alumni find ways to connect across the years. She pointed to a pair of costume pants. “They’re so popular \u2014 somebody wears them every year in a concert. Alumni come in here and bond and are like, ‘I wore the pants!’<\/p>\n

“You have a community that is your class and the classes around you. Then you add to that with all these other alums who have shared the same awesome experience.”<\/p>\n

\"Dancers<\/a>

One Saturday afternoon performance was Passing<\/em>, a piece choreographed as a tribute to Marcy Plavin\u2019s life and legacy. (Samuel Mironko ’21 for Bates College)<\/p><\/div>\n

Later, they came together to watch each other perform in Schaeffer Theatre. Bonding over cups of chai, the dancers took their seats to watch new work choreographed by students and alumni alike.<\/p>\n

Shae Gwydir \u201920, Howard, and Flannery Black-Ingersoll \u201919 performed \u201cContact Disco,\u201d a piece they created for their advanced composition class. Using three stools as props, the dancers combined intricate modern technique with theatrical facial expressions to make movement that was both succinct and sporadically comedic.<\/p>\n

\"Ya-Ya<\/a>

Presenting an improvisatory piece during Saturday afternoon’s performances, Ya-Ya Fairley ’12 used a ghostlight as a prop in the center of the stage, dancing in the small spot of light it cast. (Samuel Mironko ’21 for Bates College)<\/p><\/div>\n

The alumni pieces included improvisatory choreography by Mason and Fairley. The latter used a ghostlight as a prop in the center of the stage, dancing in the small spot of light it cast. Mason, prompted by Marie Kondo\u2019s idea of \u201csparking joy,\u201d strategically placed old childhood belongings that gave her joy on the stage, dancing around and with them.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe continue to make beautiful pieces on this stage.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The performances concluded on a poignant note with Passing<\/em>, a piece choreographed as a tribute to Plavin\u2019s life and legacy by Dilley and former Bates faculty member Rachel Boggia. Seventeen Bates dancers moved to music composed by Plavin\u2019s longtime friend and partner in work, Bill Matthews, Alice Swanson Esty Professor of Music.<\/p>\n

Passing<\/em> celebrated the continuum of Bates dance. \u201cWe continue to make beautiful pieces on this stage,\u201d said Dilley. \u201cThat\u2019s the standard that Marcy set.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>

A longtime composer for Bates dance, Alice Swanson Esty Professor of Music Bill Matthews (left) is shown with Carol Dilley prior to the April 27 performance of Passing<\/em>, presented in memory of Marcy Plavin.
(Samuel Mironko ’21 for Bates College)<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Strong community, deep thought, and beautiful pieces on the Schaeffer stage. That’s the \u201cstandard that Marcy Plavin set.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":148,"featured_media":123998,"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":[11010,130,133,11009],"tags":[1360,2014,60,5907],"class_list":["post-123974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts","category-collaboration","category-creativity","category-the-college","tag-bates-dance-company","tag-carol-dilley","tag-dance","tag-michael-foley"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123974","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=123974"}],"version-history":[{"count":27,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123974\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":124117,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123974\/revisions\/124117"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/123998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}