Transitions - Making all the right moves

To begin, Paul Zmolek assigned his student dancers to create three mammal movements, three bird movements, three insect movements and three reptile movements. Armed with 12 different maneuvers apiece, the students separated into groups to organize them into phrases. Between Zmolek and the students, the phrases evolved into a dance.

Costumer Rhonda Weller-Stilson turned the students into creatures who move in ribbons of green and brown. Zmolek's wife, Josephine, created a score that evokes the chorus of crickets and other insects that arises in a forest at night. C. Kenneth Cole and Sue Johnson added mottled light and draped burlap from above to create the sense of a natural environment these creatures are perfectly at home in.

The result is a wonderful collaboration of organic movement, flowing costumes, sound and lighting called "King Kamper and the Ford V-8," one of the highlights of the "Transitions" dance concert opening tonight.

The concert will be presented at 7 tonight and Saturday night at the Rose Theatre at Southeast Missouri State University.

The dance's title comes from Zmolek's childhood camping trips with his family. "Ken Cole said it reminds him of a journey," Zmolek said, "and it reminded me of the camping trips with my family in the Ford V-8 to California on Route 80."

Weller-Stilson's costumes reminded him of the regalia the Northern Plains Indians wore for the grass dance. Seeing the dancers move in the costumes for the first time brought out the comedy that was hidden by the dancers' street clothes, he said.

The importance of costumes and lighting in this dance concert represent a giant step for dance at Southeast from program to a partner in the Department of Theater and Dance.

Ten dancers populate the stage in "King Kamper": Laura Brazer, Clare Crouch, Amelia Essman, Maria Foster, Jennifer Hembree, Shiho Kawamura, Hailey Priday, Katie Stricker, Emily Wilson and Rebecca Wolverton.

An untitled dance choreographed by Nana Shineflug, founder of the Chicago Moving Company, creates memorable images: a lone dancer jogging in a spotlight throughout and other dancers speeding across the stage followed by huge white streamers. Set to unrelenting techno music by David First, the dance culminates in a candlelit scene suggesting a ritual has been witnessed.

The dancers are Laura Brazer, Amelia Essman, Linda Herron, Carmen Owens, Katie Stricker and Rebecca Wolverton.

Student Katie Stricker choreographed "Touch," in which five dancers (Clare Crouch, Amelia Essman, Gwendolyn Evans, Maria Foster and Joanna Maybry) move to a rolling, jazzy tune by Olive. The dancers begin by touching each other as they pass by, graduating to embraces and to synchronized movement.

"Doushi" is a rave-like hip-hop dance offering bejeweled belly buttons and five dancers with moves Britney Spears would envy. It was choreographed by student Maria Foster. The dancers are Yukiko Ito, Asano Nabeta, Chicsato Nakashima, Kana Sato and Naoto Yoruzu.

"Nzure," choreographed by student Linda Herron, creates a religious feeling with music and the costumes and movements of three dancers (Laura Brazer, Heidi Froemsdorf and Katie Stricker) who could be priestesses and eventually evoke whirling dervishes.

The second half of the program is a tribute to the feeling of joy the Beach Boys' music evinces. Choreographer Dr. Marc Strauss has integrated such familiar songs as "Wouldn't It Be Nice," "Help Me, Rhonda," "In My Room," "Sloop John B" and others into a pastiche that celebrates the harmony of sound, the harmony of movement and good vibrations.

The dancers in the 10 pieces include Strauss, Casee Hagan, Sarah Hamilton, Lauren Johns, Beth Vaughn, Meagan Edmonds, Dan Graul, Jennifer Hembree, Jami Howard, Katie Stricker, Jennifer Brandt, Jessica Carter, Gwendolyn Evans, Sarah Hamilton, Shiho Kawamura, Heather McCutchen, Devon Pasley and Melissa Upton.

sblackwell@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 182