Charis Dexter and Professor Shayla Bott, Dance

There are many ways that light is perceived, it can be seen, felt, measured, ignored, blocked, and directed. The project I successfully completed was a tangible experiment with light. I choreographed a dance for the BYU Ballet Showcase company called “Dancing in the Light”, the light of Christ. The experiment was within the experience of creating a dance that could carry a message of light, that through the dancers the audience could literally feel something being communicated to them. What I aimed to learn from this project was to polish my execution in the delicate craft of choreography, in order to know how I can take this skill out into the world and effectively reach those who will be in my audiences.

At the beginning of the process I proposed an outline of ideas and the music I had chosen, which my mentor, Shayla Bott, looked over and supported. As I created and changed the movement Shayla was there in rehearsals to watch over the progress. She gave feedback and answered questions throughout the process. She continually supported and taught me both through direct feedback and by allowing me to work through difficult spots on my own. Through the many moments of evaluation that we had in the process Shayla’s mentorship specifically taught me to have sharper eyes of evaluation and clearer words of analysis. This proved a benefi t especially in communicating with the dancers. As I get my work out in the future my effectiveness will depend on these things: how clearly I can evaluate what my dancers are portraying, communicate with them what I am seeing, and then help them get on my wavelength (or use their wavelength) to further the clarity of the choreography in the production stage. All of this was aimed for the end goal of reaching an audience and moving them, to bring more light into the world.

After the performance and also throughout the process my mentor and I were constantly evaluating. I think that Shayla recognized these things much before I did but allowed me to notice them for myself. Some of the movement was too advanced for the dancers to execute with enough clarity to achieve the desired outcome. The most powerful choreographic works are shown by performers who do it with ease. These dancers phased in and out of the desired level of ease so some power was lost there. Also, parts of the dance had many layers of movement happening simultaneously, some audience members were able to extract an overall feeling from this and it was effective for them. Others reported that it was too much happening which made it less touching for them because they wanted to focus on only one thing at a time. These audience members expressed that there needed to be clear and perfect unison for them to feel the potential power that was in the dance. The project was an overall success, and these comments were a part of that success because they helped me to see what I want to implement for future projects. I really appreciate having a mentor that knows the balance between instructing me, and allowing me to discover the same things for myself through the experience.

Other feedback I received from faculty and audience members was that they had felt something while watching the piece. They easily recognized the light that it brought. There was an apparent contrast from several other works shown that night. People reported recognizing the power, the beauty, and the light that the dance brought.

This information confirmed to me that my choreography project was on the right trajectory, and that as I brighten my skills and work with the highest level dancers available that these works will achieve the purpose they are created for.

The goal of a BYU education is “go forth to serve”. The talents I hold are such that the way I will go forth to serve is through the medium of dance. The reason dance is significant is that in every field of expertise and in the world in general, there is currently a constant battle of light against darkness. Every day people are moving toward light or away from it. This doesn’t just affect people in their personal lives; it literally pervades every thought, every second, and every interaction. Thought becomes word, which becomes action, which becomes habit, which becomes destiny. Every individual person’s destiny is affected by those they associate with.

Every business, hospital, law firm, office, field and farm, are filled with people who are either choosing light or darkness, and that affects those they serve through their profession. If I can successfully go out into the world and spread light, if I can do work that is increasing the amount of light in individual lives, then I have affected the business world, the science world, the agricultural world, and I have fought in the battle against darkness.

I would like to be a resident choreographer for a ballet company where I could consistently work with the same group of dancers. I also see myself doing occasional works as a guest choreographer. That ambition requires someone who can confidently embrace their own ideas, know how to release their inner creative genius, communicate their thoughts and feelings in an easily understandable way, and constantly look at their work through lenses not their own. It takes an expert in these things to succeed in the battle against darkness. That is the reason I did this project. I needed to polish my skills as a choreographer; it was an exercise in communicating light. It was successful because it served that purpose in the moment, and also because it cultivated expertise for further projects