Four Meadows dancers perform in last spring’s Brown Bag Dance Series. The show takes place in the lobby of the Bob Hope Auditorium. (PAUL MOSELY / Rotunda)
Meadows dancers are notorious for late night rehearsals and incredibly tight schedules, yet they still willingly choose to participate in the Brown Bag Dance Series; a show in which students choreograph their own original pieces for other student dancers.
Bo Pressly, a senior Meadows student, choreographed a piece entitled “Decente” for this year’s show.
He selected eight diverse women for his cast. The piece features junior, Amanda Owen, as a soloist.
His choreography is dynamic and intricate, drawing attention to each dancers unique movement style.
“It’s about telling a story. Stay within the context of the movement but tell the story,” Pressly said.
In this piece the dancers do a wonderful job of letting the movement speak for itself. It’s not a matter of facial expression but of making the movement itself creepy, menacing and enthralling. Attention to movement is evident
in Owen’s performance as she performs with the soft strength that Pressly originally envisioned.
Owen also takes on the role of choreographer for this Brown Bag with her own piece entitled “Yaushua.”
She explains that the process for her choreography is ongoing.
“Not a moment goes by that a new kind of movement isn’t in my head,” Owen said. “Choreography is more like breathing for me, without it I’m not entirely sure what I would do.”
Due to the emotional nature of Owen’s piece she had difficulty finding music to portray the exact feeling she wanted. Her solution was to use her younger sister Hannah
Owen, a pianist, to create an original piece for the dance.
“It has been both a privilege and a challenge to create movement that has now inspired music,” Owen said. “The Brown Bag offers these dancers a chance to explore and experiment with their choreographic works.”
“Decente” and “Yaushua” are only two of the ten unique pieces being presented Sept. 26 through Sept. 30.
“The dancers at SMU come from such a wide range of dance backgrounds, it is always so exciting to see what is presented each semester at Brown Bag,” said SMU graduates Chris Jarosz (Meadows ’09) and Willis Johnson (Meadows ’09) said. “There is not another show on campus that will encompass so many styles.”
Jarosz and Johnson are currently working with Cirque Du Soleil in Las Vegas, a coveted dance job.
They believe that the Brown Bag helped them expand their reach as dancers and prepared them for their artistic careers by exposing them to different styles and personalities.
They agree that the Brown Bag made them take initiative, express themselves and work collectively with their peers.
“A dancer that is educated and well-rounded, is a dancer that will work after college and hopefully make a career out of dance. Clearly, the Brown Bag is a key part of the self exploration and education that Meadows facilitate,” Jarosz said. “Being an audience member for this free, lunchtime performance is an unmissable opportunity to experience the inspiration in the Meadows dance department.”
