Jocelyn Lockhart and Professor Jennie Creer-King, Dance

Dance is a unique art form in that it utilizes body movement to express ideas beyond the capacity of the spoken or written word. My project was to choreograph a ballet that explored some of the many transitions faced in life. I chose this subject because, although everyone does not undergo the same transitions, we all experience times of change in our lives. It is a universal subject that we can all relate to. Transitions are times that force us to define who we are, what we are doing, and where we are going. They are moments where we stand at our crossroads.

My ballet utilizes five dancers, four females and one male. I selected my dancers: Kristi Brown, Sarah Robertson, Kristen Carrier, Koren Shupe, and Eric Goodman from among my fellow members of BYU Theatre Ballet. I chose each of them to dance specific parts based on their abilities both in technique and characterization.

We began rehearsals in January, but had minimal rehearsal time until Theatre Ballet completed its Ballet in Concert performance and tour at the beginning of March. We rehearsed At Our Crossroads regularly thereafter until its performance at the Senior Showcase on April 12 and 13, 2001.

I found choreography a very rewarding, and time consuming process that involved much revision. I was grateful to receive feedback from my faculty mentor, Jennie Creer-King, as well as from Jan Dijkwel, co-artistic director of Theatre Ballet, and Cathy Black, my faculty advisor for my senior project for which I choreographed At Our Crossroads. I also received help mixing my music from Troy Sales and help with my lighting and background from Benjamin Sanders. Mary Brown was the seamstress that made the costumes.

Perhaps my greatest challenges were being able to edit my choreography and to help my dancers portray their parts with meaning. I found that I needed to learn to give up parts of my choreography that didn’t work, even when I had spent a great deal of time on them. I had to be willing to go back to the drawing board and find something that worked better. I also discovered that sharing what my choreography meant personally to me with my dancers and the meanings behind certain movements helped them to perform their parts with more conviction. Conquering these challenges are what made my piece work.

At our Crossroads begins with all five dancers posed on stage. As the music starts, all but two of the dancers leave the stage. The first section can be divided into two parts. The background is a slide projection depicting two friends holding a jar of fireflies. It begins with two girlfriends dancing together. The music is a very pretty piece called Valsette by Debussy. Soon, one of the girls loses interest in the beautiful dancing that both girls seemed to have loved in the past. She stops and watches as her friend finishes. She is struggling with a problem many friends face when they find their best friend and them really aren’t as alike as they use to seem to be. As her friend finishes, she immediately begins her fast and fun dance to Dance Music for Borneo Horns by Lenny Pickett. The other friend watches and gradually joins in. They finish together realizing that as people change, friendships can continue to grow.

As they leave the stage, two new dancers enter, seeming not to notice the two friends. This section explores love through a pas de deux danced by a young couple falling in love for the first time. Their music is The Waltzing Cat by Leroy Anderson and the background slide portrays a young couple at a bus station. It is the kind of happy and flirty piece we would expect of young love.

The next piece is not so carefree. It is danced by a young woman who must muster up the courage to leave an abusive husband. The music is Steve Reich’s America—Before the War. The background is bleak and snowy. It focuses on the woman’s viewpoint of knowing she needs to leave, but also being frightened at leaving and starting again on her own.

The last section is danced by all the dancers in front of a slide of an open road. The music is Ocean by Moby. It portrays that none of us are alone in this world. This crossroad is one of realizing that we are all going through different transitions in our lives and we must help each other through the difficult as well as the happy times we face. The ending result of At Our Crossroads is to provoke the audience to look at their own life and the transitional times which have defined them, while also reminding them of the need to support and help others while at their crossroads.