Kristi D. Brubaker and Professor Susanne Davis, Dance

Victory From The Dust, was the result this grant. The project was a 20 minuet dance that consisted of seven sections. Each section represented a dispensation of time. The work was choreographed, rehearsed and performed between January and April 1998. It was viewed on the Senior Showcase #2, in the Richards Building Dance Theater. As a whole I felt this project was a success.

My original proposal was to research and choreograph a creative dance work which displays how God’s patterns repeat themselves through each of the seven dispensations of time. Although this theme was evident, the dance work took on a more academic approach. Motifs and movement phrases were inspired and sculpted after archeological themes from each of the prospective dispensations.

While creating the movement I tried to research archaeological characters and symbols from each time period. I ran into difficulty where discrepancies in dating occurred. I eventually had to decide to worry less about accuracy in dating artifacts and focus on creating a historic time line through movement.

The dance was a flashback or vision-like. I prefaced it with the following scripture: “And now , behold, this…I show unto thee…and [he] looked and beheld the world upon which he was created; and [he] beheld the world ad the ends thereof, and all the children of men which are, and which were created…” -Moses 1:7-8. Each section/dispensation was between 11/2 – 5 minutes in length.

Another challenge was finding a way to tie all of the sections together. I used the last section entitled Restoration of Hope to connect all the dances and themes together. In this part I had dancers from each section enter the stage with lamps – representative of restoring all the light and knowledge to this the last dispensation. The dancers of the last dispensation were able to dance their own movement testimonies. I had each dancer make up their own movement signature, and then I arranged them. It was beautiful.

The entire project was consuming. I was not only responsible for the choreography and rehearsals, but also for the costume design and construction, and the lighting design. Even though a huge task – it was the most rewarding endeavor that I participated in while at BYU. Though self directed, I had so much help and enthusiasm from religion professors. friends, family, my dancers and especially from my faculty mentor.

Completing this project in a nonregretful fashion has brought me the joy and confidence of fulfilled dreams. I hope that I can continue to create dances that in some way embody our earth life experience and the emotion which we so deeply feel here on our journey.