Experimental, is the word I would use to summarize the winter term Terpsichore show. I think in all of the years of Terp shows I’ve seen in my four years at Knox, this show was the most unique, diverse showcase. Longer too—I was not prepared for the hour and a half show.
As it took place at the Orpheum this year, there was a completely different feeling to the show. There was so much variety in its energy, message, and dance styles. There was a boogie land tap dance right next to ballet, kathak, and even pieces with combinations of multiple dance styles. Emotionally, across the board, heartfelt and deep pieces like Plum and When I See You Again contrasted with explosive bites of joy like senior Amira Siddique’s This Boogie is For Real and seniors Diya Goyal & Sam Marjaei’s A Night to Remember.
This show is hard to write about. Instead of my usual writing flurry immediately after the show—which I’ve done for past reviews—I had to sit with this one. In previous years, I’ve had obvious favorites or easy complex dances to point at and say “this is why I love dance.” This year’s show was different. What captivated me most, what I keep thinking about when sitting and trying to put words on the page, is the theme “Dancing Through Life.”
The complexity, the contrast of each piece with each other–experiences I have never had myself but still find kinship in, this year’s Terp was experimental. Not in the avant-garde way of dancers randomly yelling while slamming metal bars together, but rather, I think it was an entirely new direction for Terp. I’ve never seen so much variety. Sometimes, regrettably, the pieces can blur together a little. Not this show. I remember every single piece and the incredibly different feelings they pulled from me.
I don’t remember the starting dance for any Terp show being so explosively joyful. Siddique’s piece This Boogie is For Real reminded me just how much I love when dance choreography tells a story. Just wanting a party to actually be fun and full of dancing, wanting the others around you to join in on that joy, the core-deep thrum of excitement that only movement can bring out of you.
This Boogie is For Real wasn’t the only piece with a story to tell that night.
Senior Rachel Schonfeld’s Knights (scored to Sarah Kinsley’s song of the same name) is centered around growing up and the pains and joys of changing. Schonfeld’s piece has a plasticity to the way the dancers push and pull at one another, and watching this mix of ballet and contemporary western dance, I couldn’t help but sit a little transfixed at the grace demonstrated.
Life is Rain, from junior Madelyn Pellegrino and senior Hannah Terry, was sweet and fun, and watching the two tap dance on stage around each other was a blast. The incorporation of lyrics from Ben Platt’s “Shoe to Drop” to the slow building confidence between the duo resonated with the description of “two young people in love navigating their relationship amidst anxiety for the future.” The footwork was impressive, of course, but the way their energy bounced off of each other, the way the audience held back their cheers to listen closer; there was a connection fostered in that moment beyond just watching two people dance.
In the same way, senior Devan Boone’s solo piece Fling was just as electrifying. As Boone puts it: the piece encapsulates the “I’m in my early twenties and just keep falling in love with everyone I’ve ever met” experience. That giddy, easily in love feeling translated beautifully to her graceful leaps and pirouettes, and maybe it’s a little bit of me projecting, but watching Boone perform made me remember my own current experiences of falling in love. I’m not a ballet aficionado, but I know enough to say that Boone’s piece was an impressive technical feat and also far more full of emotion than most ballets I’ve seen.
Another part of this year’s Terp is that everyone just looked so damn happy. Happy to be there, happy to perform, happy to express what dance was to them and where their feelings came from. Pieces like seniors Diya Goyal & Sam Marjaei’s electro swing piece A Night to Remember radiated that same joy in every charleston and spin.
Sure, sometimes that “happiness” was actually a heart-pumping fight like Plum, choreographed by senior Ren Herzog, junior Megan Moore and sophomores Keegan Stocks-McElligott & Shay O’Connell. Plum was full of dances clasping at each other, pulling the other around the stage. There was the fight to stay together to still have something of a relationship, while also pushing away and having nothing at all.
Sometimes, that happiness was self-expression and empowerment. Senior Morgana Simpson’s You Can’t Buy Love, But You Can Rent It started with Simpson explaining her studies into the stripper environment around the culture of stripping. The piece is sexual and intense and impressively well executed for some of the (unacknowledged) difficult dance moves they pulled off.
It’s a more serious moment, contrasted with a dance piece depicting what society largely views as unserious and not worth mocking. Pleasantly, both during and in the aftermath of the following intermission, I heard only positive things about Simpson’s piece. Terp and sexual empowerment have always been a cause for rifts, either within the audiences or between the stage and the viewer, and I can only hope that this is a sign for the better within Knox.
In contrast, I also want to point out junior Naysha Jain’s Kathak dance piece, which was an impressive show of skill and precision. I agree with Jain’s sentiments of bringing this never-before-seen performance to Knox, and the “hope to share its beauty and depth with a new audience.” I have only ever seen Kathak dances through video, which basically amounts to nothing in terms of actual familiarity with the form. This was a breath of fresh air within the Terp show and it is always a pleasure to see something new and different from the typical western contemporary dance (of which I am still a fan).
Like last year’s winter show, the Senior Piece did make me nearly cry, which is a little ironic considering “HOT TO GO!” was playing. It is hard to watch people whom you’ve grown to know deeply over four years perform for the last time, knowing that you will never have a moment like this again. I am graduating this spring and it has left me (and many of my peers) with a lot of feelings that seem too large to keep inside my ribs. But this is where I believe Terp excels.
Terp always feels like a call to your soul, asking to be seen and heard and understood. What else can you do but answer? It always reminds me just how much shows like these matter, both to the dancers and to the audience. Sitting there, seeing this explosion of expression and experimenting and growing, knowing I will never get this again, feels like each dance was able to squeeze those emotions out of me. Seeing that connection, across distance and experience, and knowing that this will never be the end. You cannot remove dance from life.
