Classes at St. Thomas have teamed up with Macalester College dance students and Pilobolus, a modern dance company, to create a semester-long project sponsored through the Ordway Center for Performing Arts’ education and outreach program.
Videography, biology and environmental students at St. Thomas collaborated with Pilobolus and Macalester dance students to create the project, which will be performed at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Macalester’s Janet Wallace Fine Arts Center.
Biology professor Gaston Small said the experience was valuable because students from different disciplines were able to gain broader perspectives.
“We can all look at a flower for example … and we see different things,” Small said. “The scientists are thinking about photosynthesis and carbon sequestration … and the dancers are seeing the movement of the flower when the breeze blows.”
The project incorporated ideas from science students like human ecosystems and the environment. Then, the ideas were interpreted through videography to create choreography for the performance.
Associate Artistic Director of Pilobolus Matt Kent said he likes to collaborate with people who are not necessarily dancers because it makes the project unique.
“The more people who say, ‘what does this have to do with dance?’ the more interesting the project can be,” Kent said. “When you’re collaborating with other disciplines, you’re kind of forced to do something that’s not what you would normally do.”
Sophomore Mariann Kukielka helped coordinate the event.
“It’s been really interesting because we’ve had little difficulties on ‘How do we incorporate these things?’” Kukielka said. “It’s really pushed our mind to think along the lines of the environmentalists and the scientists.”
Sophomore Emily Dehart directed the video that will be played behind the dancers and said working on the project was “frustrating” at first with so many different perspectives, but it eventually came together on its own.
“Sometimes it feels like we’re not all quite on the same page,” Dehart said. “It sort of creates itself in a way and so you have to keep going and keep pushing it and it sort of evolves on its own.”
Dehart said the biology and environmental students gave the videography class information about the environment. The Pilobolus dance company tried to interpret the information through choreography, which they taught to the Macalester dance students. The final performance will have the video being projected on a screen behind the Macalester dancers.
“It’s really just the skill of collaboration,” Kent said. “We broke up into groups to talk about film and what their reaction was. I felt the students were very open and ready. I think in the beginning it was a little academic and tight and they got over that I think and let their curiosity, their youthfulness to kind of take over.”
Dehart said the experience was not only beneficial for her class, but it gave her skills she can use in the future.
“You go out into the world and you’re expected to make different connections with other people,” Dehart said. “To start in college and to learn how to collaborate with all these different people is … a really great thing to learn, especially before you get out into the working world.”
Even though it is Small’s first year at St. Thomas, collaborating with other classes and disciplines is something he would like to continue to do because it “opens doors for future opportunities.”
“I’m excited about being here (St. Thomas), because it’s a small enough school that you can make these connections with people in other departments and hopefully do creative things like this,” Small said.
Zach Zumbusch can be reached at zumb8499@stthomas.edu.