UVa Dance Program Collaborates with Engingeering School
Monday, November 23, 8:00pm
A semester-long collaboration on mobility/disability between the University of Virginia Dance Program and School of Engineering and Applied Science will culminate in a performance and discussion on Monday evening.
The collaboration was conceived by Rose Pasquarello Beauchamp, head of the Dance Program in the Department of Drama, and Bradford Bennett, assistant professor of research in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, who specializes in the biomechanics of gait and regularly teaches engineering courses. Their vision was to engage students in an interdisciplinary study on the process of improving and limiting mobility.
Ten students from Bennett’s Introduction to Engineering course were assigned to design devices that improve mobility for a handicapped person. Seven student and faculty choreographers were then asked to choreograph a dance integrating the devices. In addition to the two devices the engineering students designed, the choreographers will use other devices such as leg braces and crutches.
The choreographers will restrict their dancers’ movements, representing mobility challenges faced by a paraplegic person, an amputee, or someone with legs damaged by polio. The devices will help the dancers move around the stage.
“The idea is that a device that helps a person with disability in one area can allow dancers to break out of their boundaries. The hope is that the dancers find freedom in the restrictions,” Beauchamp said. “We are interested in proving the ability to dance regardless of physical limitation.”
The November 23 performance is free and open to the public. The event will showcase the choreographed dances as well as feature a discussion on the students’ experience, both in designing and in dancing with the devices. Faculty mentors, choreographers and students will lead the talk.
The dance-engineering collaboration kicks off a series of events exploring physically integrated dance. From March 23 to 26, the U.Va. Department of Drama and Dance Program will welcome AXIS Dance Company to Charlottesville. AXIS’ focus is on creating and presenting contemporary dance by artists with and without disabilities. During its guest artist residency, AXIS Dance Company will teach a series of master classes, hold a lecture and demonstration for middle and high school students and perform modern dance choreographer David Dorfman’s new piece “A Light Shelter.”
