A series of dances were held by a special topics dance class, which focused on site-specific choreography taught by Dr. Martie Fellom, professor of dance on Thursday, Sept. 8. This is the first time Southeastern has offered this class as a full semester course.
“Having the class as a full semester course gives the opportunity to students to delve into the topic and investigate it more thoroughly,” said Fellom.
Throughout the semester, the students in the site-specific choreography class will be performing four different projects broken up around the campus grounds.
“Site-specific choreography calls attention to place and what is there,” said Fellom. “It gives the viewer a chance to discover something new.”
The first topic of the site-specific choreography class was for the students to use their senses to observe the site in order to find out things about the area where the dance will be performed and finding a way to make the dance relate.
All of the sites that the students performed at were pre-selected by them before they began their choreography.
The first of the dances for sensing the site was at 11:05 a.m. in the Student Union, where students watched and photographed four of the students who performed the dance that they choreographed.
Once finished, the class moved on to their next area to begin the performance at the Bass Clef Performance Circle between Quiznos and the Pottle Music Building Auditorium.
Each of the dances performed had the students separated into four person groups.
“Taking this class gives us all a sense of unity, giving us all common ground,” said Taylor Rook, a sophomore Kinesiology major.
The last group of students performed their dance on Sept. 13 at 11:30 a.m. inside Clark Hall, where the group not only performed outside, they also took their choreographed dance right into the Contemporary Art Gallery.
“We chose to use the art building because we wanted to do something with art,” said Kyle Berry, a senior majoring in biology. “It was a humbling experience and a fun process.”
The students in this special topics class have three more dances that they will be performing which include “Revering Beauty,” “Excavating Place” and “Assessing Community.” Each group will choose a site relating to the project.