SUNY Brockport choreographers pivot from stage to screen

With adjustments made in consideration of the COVID-19 pandemic, the SUNY Brockport Department of Dance is presenting a holiday gift a little bit early. Starting on Saturday, November 21, at 7:30 p.m., its concert, Virtual DANCE/Hartwell, will begin streaming on an on-demand basis through December 26. Though the event is free, patrons must register online at fineartstix.brockport.edu to receive the link to view the performance. Donations will also be accepted at the ticketing site. Patrons may contact the Tower Fine Arts Center box office for guidance at 395-2787.

Assistant Professor Stevie Oakes and Emma Scholl, the costumer for the department, are sharing the artistic director responsibilities for the concert. They opted for a slight shift in the concert’s standard procedure to address issues of exclusion and access. This year, all dance majors were invited to participate in the virtual concert, “perhaps better representing the Department of Dance’s vision that each creative voice is vital,” according to the two faculty members. Throughout this tumultuous year, Oakes has observed a “resilience of spirit which has brought many artists back to the drawing board to innovate their creative processes… Dance is no exception, and the dance majors at SUNY Brockport have delved deeply to reimagine their choreographic craft for the screen.”

The nine choreographers whose works are featured “not only worked within parameters of safe physical distancing measures but also creatively sought to utilize a new set of choreographic tools,” Oakes related. Occasionally, “some editing techniques which are not possible in live performance [were utilized]: overlapping dancers, setting dancers in multiple locations at once, or changing the viewer’s perspective mid-dance to arrive at a different angle.”

More information about the Fine Arts Series at The College at Brockport can be found at brockport.edu/academics/fine_arts or Facebook.

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