A dancer starts her performance uneasily rocking back and forth on a chair, straining to finish a cigarette. Her co-performer struggles to take one more swig of a bottle while stumbling across the stage. Both seamlessly join the other dancers in a series of flowing lyrical sequences, embodying the fluid interchangeability between dancing and acting in Black Movement Dance Theatre’s November showcase, Paradigm.
The production combines crisp dance, theatrical emotion, varied musical styles, and even poetry in an innovative work of performance art. These scenes guide the audience through a thrilling and powerful journey exploring the struggles and celebrations that humans face throughout their lives.
BMDT was formed 30 years ago as an effort to bring the African American experience forward in the Georgetown community through contemporary dance. Today, the company moves beyond its founding goal, striving to incorporate the entire human experience, with a particular emphasis on women’s issues.
“We wanted to use what we do as dancers and as artists to speak to larger issues as well and say that they’re not just symptomatic to one particular race,” Alfreda Davis, artistic director of BMDT, said.
The title of the show, Paradigm, was inspired by the onset of change that the group has seen with the start of their new season.
“A paradigm is a sequence of doing things, a certain pattern, a certain formation,” Davis said.
This semester, that pattern and sequence of doing things changed drastically for BMDT. The company had a large graduating class at the end of last year. They moved into their new practice space in the Healey Family Student Center. And this year, BMDT has its first male student director in the history of the organization. Overall, Black Movements has seen many marks of change, and even progress, that have characterized its new approach to dance as both an art form and a medium of expression.
This showcase exhibits the culmination of BMDT’s paradigm shift in its new voice, as it brings together instrumental music, hip-hop, and R&B, even incorporating some spoken word, to build a repertoire encapsulating different facets of the human experience. To these dancers, the story of the dance is just as important as the visual beauty of strong technique.
The ability to incorporate multiple styles of dance, from modern contemporary to hip-hop to tap, gives the performers a unique ability to appeal to a wide audience and diverse interests.
“I’m trained as a tap dancer, so it’s been really great to share my background with the company.” said Alex Ciejka, the fall student director and BMDT’s business manager, who had the opportunity to choreograph a dance in the showcase. “The girls in my piece have never tapped before, so it’s been a really fun experience, really cool and rewarding to see my work come to life.”
With its students’ meticulous dance technique and risky emotional charge, Paradigm is sure to be a visually fresh and thought provoking production.
“We never want to have our audience walk away not feeling as if they’ve been inspired,” Davis said. “We want our audience to walk away feeling like there’s something to think about. We want our audience to walk away feeling that they can do exactly what they’ve just seen.”
Black Movements Dance Theatre
Walsh Black Box Theater
Nov. 21 – Nov. 22, 8p.m.
performingarts.georgetown.edu
Photo by Vicki Lam
