Collaboration Takes Center Stage for Tisch Dance Students
By Richard Pierce
As the incoming chair in the dance department at the Tisch School of the Arts (TSOA), Cherylyn Lavagnino promised herself last September that she would try to create more performance opportunities for her students. After numerous collaborations with other TSOA departments and schools within the University, it’s clear that Lavagnino is achieving her goals.
Lavagnino joined the dance department faculty full time in 1987, and for the past 14 years has co-directed Second Avenue Dance Company (SADC), the department’s resident dance company comprising graduate and undergraduate students in their final year of training. Her philosophy there had been “the more performance experience and professional connections a student has the better,” and she continues pursuing this philosophy in her new role.
Last fall, her students collaborated with the Steinhardt School’s programs in Vocal Performance and Graduate Musical Theatre Writing (GMTW). One project involving William Moulton, associate arts professor and master teacher in music in the Department of Dance, and Steinhardt’s Dianna Heldman, teacher of music and associate director of vocal performance in the Department of Music and Performing Arts Professions, comprised eight singers, two pianists, and 10 dancers in a restaging of Mark Morris’s New Love Songs Waltzes (1982). The dance is set to music by Brahms, which was performed live by Steinhardt musicians.
Lavagnino explains that it’s rare today to use live music in dance due the expense of paying for musicians. Moulton adds that while it was an intensive art making process with many factors to overcome, “the level of artistry was extremely high for both the musicians and the dancers.”
“The eight Steinhardt student vocalists came away with a sense of great accomplishment,” says Heldman. “As singers, when they saw the piece brought to fruition in dance it gave them a whole new level of awareness.”
Last December, a one-day experimental workshop took place between GMTW’s composer-lyricists and SADC choreographers.
“It was an opportunity for our writers to see what kind of movement their words and music would inspire,” says Sarah Schlesinger, GMTW chair. “It’s essential for our writers to create their work with dance as part of their vision and working with the wonderful dancers and choreographers next door to us on Second Avenue will help them to do that.”
Some students will even gain professional experience to put on their resumes. The La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club in Greenwich Village will feature Tisch choreographers at its “La MaMa Moves Dance Festival” this May 15-18, including dances by four student choreographers and three alumni choreographers whose work will be performed by members of SADC. When graduate acting alum Nicky Paraiso ’77, co-curator with Mia Yoo for performance at LaMaMa’s The Club approached Lavagnino about an all-Tisch series she said she jumped at the chance for her students. “It will not only be a wonderful opportunity for students to gain professional experience outside the school as both performers and choreographers, but it will serve as a stepping stone into the professional world of dance for our SADC dancers,” says Lavagnino.
Back on campus, SADC dancers will join with TSOA’s Photography and Imaging Department and choreographer Ronald K. Brown, who blends African, modern, ballet, and social dance styles, in a collaborative experience titled Serving Nia. The dance is meant to complement the exhibition “The Poetics of Cloth: African Textiles/Recent Art” that will be on view from Sept. 16 – Dec. 6 at NYU’s Grey Art Gallery in conjunction with an exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Deborah Willis, chair of photography and imaging, will create visuals to support the dance performance.
Finally, next month SADC 2008 will hold its annual spring concert series featuring the work of four noted guest choreographers—Trisha Brown, Jessica Lang, Mark Morris, and Christopher Williams. The series, which will run April 2-7, will premiere two new works by Lang and Williams and feature new work of five student choreographers. For more reservations and information, call 212-998-1982.
