Riley Carter dances during a dress rehearsal CU Dance’s Revel performances at the Charlotte York Irey Theatre on Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (Clementine Miller/CU Independent)
Dance gives artists an outlet to share what they are feeling or going through in their lives at that time: connection, injustice, respect, exploration or just getting through the day. There is no outline for what a dance has to look like, and more than that, choreographers are encouraged to creatively break down barriers of the past and express both unique and common daily emotions through movement. The seven dances that comprise the Revel dance concert are a perfect example of this.
Six students who are working to earn their Masters of Fine Arts in dance at the University of Colorado Boulder got the chance to choreograph and showcase their works in this year’s Revel show. Harveen Gill, a second year master’s student, felt compelled to create two very different pieces; one about reclaiming joy and the other on something much more serious.
Gill shared the story behind her lighthearted Bollywood dance titled “Jawani,” which translates to “youthfulness.”
“This work is really about coming back to my inner child and coming back to my culture and my heritage, and really finding that joy and femininity, and finding empowerment in that,” Gill said.
In “Jawani”, Gill and the other two dancers were laughing and joyful due in part to how the dance was created.
“My dancers are my collaborators, and we just had really fun music, and let our bodies kind of improvise and build off of each other’s movement and energy,” Gill said. “This process was really smooth because we were just having fun, like that was the focus: to just have fun, and if we got too stressed out, we would just put a pin in it and come back next week.”
This feeling was felt throughout her piece in the colorful costumes and the genuine on-stage smiles.
Harveen Gill dances during a dress rehearsal CU Dance’s Revel performances at the Charlotte York Irey Theatre on Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (Clementine Miller/CU Independent)
Gill’s second piece stood out as one of the heaviest and most impactful dances in Revel. In addition to dance, “Home is Where the Olive Trees Grow” incorporates Gill speaking to the audience about oppression and the Palestinian resistance and what “she didn’t know,” as she repeats that phrase many times throughout the work.
Not only did the choreography of this piece and navigating the best ways to approach these topics take more time and thought than “Jawani,” but Gill also struggled with the number of people in her cast.
“I started off with six dancers and every other week I lost a dancer, so I felt like I was starting over every other week,” Gill said. “A week and a half before the show, I lost my fourth dancer, so I had to make the choice of either giving up or putting myself into the work, and so I chose to come into the work. Working alongside my collaborators, we created something new from something that was already there.”
Even with only three dancers on stage during this dance, audience members could feel the weight of the topics she was speaking about and the importance of knowing and being aware of injustices happening around the world.
Rhianna Cranston dances during a dress rehearsal of CU Dance’s Revel performances at the Charlotte York Irey Theatre on Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (Clementine Miller/CU Independent)
The final piece of the show was choreographed by Tyreis Hunte, a dance MFA student with a focus in hip hop and media arts practices. “Watah No Get Enemy” had a clear story line and a rhythm throughout the piece that made the audience want to tap their toes. Hunte explained the history behind the title that they chose.
“It’s an old saying, a proverb,” Hunte said. “It says… water doesn’t have enemies, that’s like the English translation of it. In this case it was created to show that the people with us, the music and the culture is the water, and you never want to make an enemy of that. One, cause that’s what’s needed to get the job done, but also that’s what’s needed for life.”
Hunte took inspiration from the culture of workers in the African Diaspora, which also relates to the global culture as a whole. How workers doing physically difficult jobs can find a silver lining of community through their work. While they were inspired by this very rich culture, the piece had a simple story to tell.
“It’s [about] showing up to work,” Hunte said. “We all have that job that we do, just because we like the people that work there. At the end of the day, if you don’t like your job, it’s the co-workers that get you through it. It’s the hanging around, the joking around, singing, playing that playlist that you like. Doing the thing. And it’s the community that gets the job done. The community is the water.”
Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Addisson Pribble at Addisson.Pribble@colorado.edu.
