Jana Burleson Taylor and Professor Shani Robison, Dance Department

Experience in choreography is a vital part of the education of a dance major, particularly one like myself who hopes to pursue a career in dance teaching. Unfortunately, as students, the opportunity to create choreography which is exhitibited in an audience-attended performance can be rare, perhaps only once in the college experience with a student’s “senior project.” In addition, each semester there are so many students accomplishing their senior projects, that it can become difficult to work closely with a faculty mentor who would facilitate the correct learning and maturing process that ought to develop. The maturation of a dancer that develops from choreographing is not only valuable to the student’s learning experience, but also incredibly valuable to the Dance Department at Brigham Young University and to the art of dance itself. If approached lightly, with little aid from an experienced choreographer such as a faculty mentor, the resulting work can be insubstantial. It is a creative work, but it is not enough for the student to just create. It must be done with in-depth analysis, strongly encouraged and influenced by a trusted and experienced mentor.

The opportunity I had to choreograph while closely mentored by Shani Robison, a professor in the ballet division of the Dance Department, is one I wish each student in the Dance Major could experience. By receiving the ORCA Grant I was able to afford to attend school full time and allow myself the time I needed to delve into the choreographic process. The eight-minute piece I created took approximately 60 hours of preparation in creation of the concept, development into dance movement, rehearsal with the seven dancers, coaching the soloists, making the costumes, and developing the lighting and staging in the final steps of production. This process was made possible by the ORCA Grant, not only for funding, but also by giving me the motivation to seriously explore and apply myself in the process.

Though my project did not turn out perfectly, the value of the mentored, thorough approach in which I participated was immeasurable. With all the difficulties and problems that arose, the overall learning experience was what has sparked in me a passion for choreography and will propel me in future explorations of movement and productions.

As I began my contemporary ballet piece, Facades, my goal was to have it accepted to be performed in the Ballet Showcase performance in November 2005. We rehearsed the piece for a month and a half, and auditioned it as 90% finished in mid-October. After consideration by two ballet faculty members, including my mentor Professor Robison, they decided not to include it in the Ballet Showcase performance. Though this was at first a dissapointment to me, it ended up to be a beneficial, and wise, decision made by my professors who had my best interest in mind. They felt there was potential in my choreography that could be better achieved if performed in the later performance in December 2005, the Senior Projects Showcase. The feedback they gave me after this audition was profound as it came from two experienced mentors that closely analyzed my work. Although it meant that I had to rework much of my choreography, and in some ways even start over, my final product and what I learned were overall improved dramatically, and I will always retain the further knowledge about choreographing that I gained from that meeting with my professors.

Some areas in creation of a student choreographic project using fellow students as dancers proved to be difficult and would benefit from further improvement. Most of all, I wish that I could have rehearsed with my dancers more frequently. This way, I could have finished the dance sooner, without stress about retaining knowledge of the choreography, and then moved on to further develop the emotional expression of the movement, which was what was my overall purpose in this project as stated in my ORCA application. The seven dancers who participated in my piece were seven talented and expressive females, who were all also full-time students involved in one of the BYU ballet companies and thus dedicated to the preparation of their companies’ upcoming performances. Thus organizing a rehearsal time that worked for all eight of us was near impossible, so we had to make do with what time we had. If I had to do it all over again, I honestly do not know what I would have done differently, for that is just the nature of works directed and performed by students. I wish for my own sake and the sake of future student choreographers, that there was a way to avoid this difficulty, but I find that stress coincides with creation, and perhaps this is just another aspect in dance that I needed to learn before entering a career in the dance field. Considering the impedement, the motivation I had to create something worthy of the ORCA Grant to which I applied, was helpful in working through the difficulties. Without this stimulus, I honestly may not have been as driven to push through and may not have been as proud as I ended up to be with the finished product.

As I watched my choreography being performed onstage, with costumes I created, and lighting I conceived, I was satisfied with the outcome. Did it turn out how I hypothesized? Not completely, yet I felt it was a noteworthy creation and I was pleased. My initial proposal was to create a contemporary ballet piece that was emotionally expressive, so as to develop expression within ballet dancers. This is significant for each dancer’s own development, influencing dance to be an integration of the body, mind, and soul. The concept of my piece revolved around this idea, and I do feel I developed movement, augmented by the music and lighting, that was immersed in emotion. My dancers, on the other hand, could have developed more emotional expression. I did my part to influence their expression just as I had proposed I would: reading pieces of litterature, exerpts from personal experiences of others and my own to portray the emotional meaning of the movement. After doing what I could, it was up to the dancers to connect their own personal emotion to their movements. I cannot say I felt every single dancer did so, but I did see a significant development of such within some of the dancers. I cannot say the performance of the piece was so emotionally captivating that it was a life-changing experience for audience members, but I did see a progression of expression in ballet within my own creation. As I watched my choreography, Facades, on the final performance night, it was not perfect, but I truly felt every dancer dance from their own hearts, pouring emotion into their movements just as I had hoped, and I was very pleased.

The overall experience I received in this mentored choreographic process was priceless to my personal growth as a dancer and choreographer. Yet one of the most beneficial aspects of receiving the ORCA Grant is it is a new discovery among majors in the Dance Department. The fact that I, as well as several others, was able to receive a grant for a creative project, has set an example to all other dance majors so that they will apply themselves to further choreographic projects. Through the ORCA Grant, bigger and better creations will and are being pursued, and hopefully there will be more focus on developing choreography through the direction of a mentor. This project has fostered a passion for choreography that I am determined to progress as I graduate from the Dance Department. Thus for myself and each dancer, our development preparatory to entering the dance world advances, and we are better prepared to make a contribution to this art form.