Interview with Maddy and Nola

Lena Oren met up with juniors Maddy and Nola in between classes to learn a little bit more about the piece they created and the process behind it. 

Q: What is the name of the dance?

A: Dances for the Kitchen

Q:  Who is the composer of the music?

A: Slavic Soul Party

Q:    What is the concept behind the piece?

A: It is actually a restaging from another work. We conceptually tried to take things from a dance we did a year ago. What we kept was the idea of gender roles and whether we wanted to fulfill them, question them, or rebel against them.

Q:  Can you tell us a little bit about the process of creating the piece?

A: We came in with material on the videotape and in our body that was from the piece from last june. We had a lot of plans about how we could organize it, based on the number of dancers, and what sections we wanted to keep, whether they were trio, duet, or solo. We tried to set a game plan before our first rehearsal because of the lack of time. After the first rehearsal we strung things together to see what worked and what needed to be delved into more.

Q: What have been some of your fondest memories at the University of Michigan?

Maddy stands while Nola hinges during a duet they
choreographed that was performed at the American
College Dance Festival this year

A: Maddy-Oh Gosh! My fondest memory would proabably be the first week of school when Nola and I went to a football game. I was wearing a yellow Michigan shirt and Nola was wearing a floral dress. We were walking down State Street by all the crazy houses, when we spotted these boys we sort of knew. They told us to join them in the house they were in, so we walked into that house and were greeted by someone who asked us why we were there. We then spotted our sort of "friend."  The guy was wearing 3 or 4 michigan shirts layered on top of one another, and he asked Nola why she was wearing a dress and  gave Nola a shirt to wear.

Q: Do you prefer choreography over performing? Or visa versa?

A: Nola-I like to performing other people's works because it gives me the opportunity to try on different things and different styles of movement or moods, or styles I would not necessarily make myself. But at the moment I am very interested in improvisation and orignianl work and I love choreography way more than I did when I first came here, because I had done zero choreography when I first came here.

Maddy-Today, I still like performing more. But that also includes performing my own stuff. I do like performing others as well. I think my opinion could change in the future.