Monday, August 22, 2016
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Columbia City Ballet turns to contemporary choreography Carroline Stringfellow @SILLY_STRING
For most of Columbia City Ballet’s performances, the story of the piece drives the choreography. But on March 9 and March 10, the company is exploring movement in a less concrete way. “Body and Movement Explored” is a unique piece in that its choreography is not determined by a preconceived story arc. Instead, the story derives from the choreographers and dancers themselves. “Body & Movement Explored” is performed by 20 professional dancers, each of whom use their personal experiences to give the choreography meaning. For veteran dancer Regina Willoughby, this show is both a farewell and a welcome. Willoughby is retiring after this dance season, but her daughter is just starting her career with Columbia City Ballet. “[My daughter] is in the company my last season and it’s such a rarity,” Willoughby said. “And I said we absolutely have to do a piece together for this ... that would give us a chance to dance together that we haven’t had elsewhere.” While she was inspired by her daughter, Willoughby herself also serves as inspiration. Phillip Ingrassia, a choreographer with Cit y Columbia Ballet, distinctly remembers seeing a newspaper clipping of Willoughby performing Sand
Ethan Lam/ THE DAILY GAMECOCK
Dance during his freshman year. Using his past and his present, Ingrassia has taken his choreography beyond his own experiences. “We’re exploring movement, we’re exploring the psyche, and maybe socioeconomic norms so we get to be a little bit more creative,” he said. “It’s about relationships.” Even his casting process reflects his process. Ingrassa draws on the experiences of his dancers when casting to ensure they move naturally and have an emotional connection to the piece. “I did cast it according to what I wanted the roles to be. It was a little bit natural for where they are in their own lives as well,” Ingress said. “It fits them.” Building a show from more abstract concepts is new
territory for those behind the scenes as well. No one knows that better than the ballet mistress. In charge of running rehearsals, editing the music and so much more, Miranda Bailey knows first hand the effort that goes into a show as fluid as this one. “Without the structure of the plot, it’s all separate pieces and you have to figure out how they’re going to go in an order that’s going to be entertaining for the audience,” Bailey said. But Bailey, like the choreographers, knows the outcome will be something special. “The shows we’re doing are so, so different from each other,” she said. “You spend most of your time embodying somebody else’s artistic vision, and this is the time to embody their own artistic vision.”
Love of music on display at faculty fundraising show Brad Dountz
@BRAD_DOUNTZ
Logan Zahner THE DAILY GAMECOCK
The city of Columbia has music venues for smaller, local bands as well as national headliners.
Column: Columbia’s art scene continues to grow, flourish Genna Contino @GENNAC07
Columbia is a “famously hot” city filled w it h t rains, palmet to t rees, Sout her n t r ad it ion a nd mo st i mp or t a nt l y, t he Gamecocks. When people think of Soda City, however, the words “arts and culture” don’t typically come to mind. This is pretty mind-boggling to me. In the two years I’ve lived here, I’ve experienced some amazing art. Columbia doesn’t identify as a city with a strong arts scene, but with the resources that are already available to us, I think it’s possible to establish this identity. The collection at the Columbia Museum of Art is simply breathtaking. The permanent collection features a vast range of styles and time periods of art. There is even a Monet, which still gives me a warm and fuzzy feeling in my stomach every time I see it. The traveling exhibitions the museum hosts also offers Columbia residents and visitors alike the opportunity to witness legendary art. In the time I’ve been here, I’ve seen the works Salvador Dalí and Henri Matisse. Currently it features the beautiful and thought-provoking works of Renée Cox. Visual art is not even close to where Columbia stops in its extensive arts scene. Performing arts are also widely available for those in Cola. We have three professional ballet companies: Columbia Classical Ballet, Ann Brodie’s Carolina Ballet and Columbia City Ballet which offer multiple full-length productions as well as diverse forms of dance to the city of Columbia every year.
And we can’t forget about theater. Trustus T he at re , Tow n T he at re , C olu mbia’s Marionette Theatre, Columbia Children’s Theat re a nd The Sout h Carol i na Shakespeare Company all reside within our cit y. Tow n Theat re is t he “oldest community theatre building in continuous use in the United States” according to experiencecolumbiasc.com and is a great example of how Columbia’s rich history contributes to its arts scene. Last but not least is music venues. New Brookland Tavern and Music Farm are great intimate venues for local musicians, and Colonial Life Arena is able to host bands and artists with huge fan bases. So really, you have the opportunity to hear a pretty broad variety of live music in our capital city. So, with all of these artistic opportunities available, why is Columbia not considered an art hub?What makes Columbia different from Asheville, Austin or San Francisco? The answer is not hing. Columbia has the infrastructure and the culture to be a center for arts. What it really needs to grow culturally and artistically is an engaged audience. Columbia hosts events like Soda City, St. Pat’s in Five Points and Famously Hot New Year which promote local music and art. Columbia has all of the awesome arts venues and organizations I rambled on about above. It’s clear that the arts are growing steadily within our community. If we want Columbia to identify as an arts city, our main focus should be taking advantage of the quality art that already surrounds us.
For many, performing at the School of Music can be a daunting task. But for the school’s faculty, it’s just fun. On March 8, select members of the faculty will perform the music of American composer Burt Bacharach for the Musical Feast, a fundraiser to help raise scholarship money for music students. The School of Music has partnered with the Friends of the School of Music organization to put the event together. Jazz professor Bert Ligon was in charge of choosing the music as well as selecting the other faculty members who will join him on stage. Ligon had thought about doing a Bacharach tribute for a while, and after hearing a rumor that Bacharach himself was in town, he chose eight songs that he felt best summarized the composer’s legendary career. “I’ve done a couple of things like this before, where I go out there and try to fi nd that grey area in between, like I’ve done some things where we do a jazz performance but we’ve included the classical string quartet,” Ligon said. Even though Bacharach himself will not be attending, his daughter Raleigh, a student at USC, will be there. Ligon thinks the reason these kinds of performances work so well is because the faculty doesn’t feel pressure to perform or pressure from students who may be counting on the money they raise to attend or stay in school the thing. Indeed, he stresses that the faculty would be performing even there wasn’t a reason to. “If we were doing it because we thought it was important, that would be a terrible motive. We do it because we like to play and like to sing and like to perform,” Ligon said. One of the faculty singers performing alongside Ligon will be Janet Hopkins, a mezzo-soprano who has performed with The Met, at Carnegie Hall and at the opening ceremony during the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New York. Hopkins, who is a classically trained singer, will be out of her comfort zone during the performance when she sings pop music, but she says singing differently is more liberating than her usual musical background. “In classical it feels like precision is so important and when you sing pop music, you can bend notes, you can be a lot freer with the rhythms, so there’s a lot more freedom that’s allotted to us as singers,” Hopkins said. “So it’s kind of fun to do it.” Hopkins says faculty usually does individual performances, so it’s special when they get the chance to be on stage together. Hopkins relishes the chance to work with someone like Ligon, who she doesn’t normally get to partner with. “It’s especially great to work with Bert because he’s jazz ... so it’s really cool to be able to cross that line,” Hopkins said. Hopkins says fundraisers like this almost act like a recruiting tool for people who are interested in attending the School of Music. The money raised for scholarships adds to the joy of performing and helps keep Hopkins’ faith in the future of the arts. “It also gives us validation that people believe in the arts and what we’re doing by them helping to support the next generation of artists,” Hopkins said. To Hopkins, performing with the School of Music doesn’t compare to the stress she felt while performing at The Met or Carnegie Hall, but that means she can just enjoy herself more. “This takes a lot of pressure off and it’s just fun ... Sometimes we forget that we chose this career because we love it, so it just puts the love back in it,” Hopkins said.