Art is a product of its time.
Musicians write protest songs, visual artists capture their opinion in paint, photos and clay, and dancers give voice to the current zeitgeist with their bodies.
“Uncharted” is the first collaboration between Ormao Dance Company and the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs Theatre and Dance Company, with help from Chuck Wilt, a choreographer, dancer, drag artist and artistic director of UNA Productions, a San Francisco-based dance company, who did an artist residency at UCCS in February as part of UCCS Cabaret Club. The show will pay homage to several topics of the current zeitgeist, including democracy and immigration.
The collaboration provides a fertile environment for the professional and student dancers. It creates a professional environment for the students to experience and learn from, while also connecting UCCS to the community by sharing resources.
“The professional dancers are always on top of their tasks, attentive; they don’t have time to lose, to waste,” said UCCS assistant professor of dance Rosely Conz. “Sometimes that’s an ability the students lack, so they are learning from peer example. We have the space and Ormao has the dancers.”
It’s a way to bring strong, high-caliber dance to the stage, Conz says. A show like this creates a learning opportunity like no other and helps students rise to the occasion.
“I want our community to be an environment where professional dancers can work and live,” said Ormao founder Jan Johnson. “It upsets me when people say isn’t it great they went off to New York. I say isn’t it great they came back? And they have a job here? Isn’t that better? It’s letting the students have a through line that they can see what’s possible. Maybe they will go somewhere else and have experience, but they’ll know they can come back and see if there’s work.”
Johnson’s piece in the show will explore the immigration situation, for which she interviewed first-generation immigrants. She also asked her dancers to do the same work in preparation for the piece.
“A lot of important messages will be explored,” Johnson said. “As all good art does. It should be challenging people to think.”
Performances are Thursday through Sunday at Ent Center for the Arts.
As part of Wilt’s residency, the performer did two Cabaret Club performances, choreographed a piece for “Uncharted” and worked with dancers over the course of a week.
“Chuck brings a groundedness and a rigor but also so much generosity that it spreads around the dancers,” Conz said. “They are being so fast and picking up and responding to prompts, sequences, challenges, tasks. I couldn’t predict the students and dancers would get along so well and connect and start working together.”
UCCS senior Kaley Corinaldi has learned to use her body in a new way, she says.
“Chuck’s work requires you to be present and listen to people because these dances aren’t set to specific counts,” Corinaldi said. “We have to see each other and see our bodies in order to be one with each other in our movement. I’ve learned to listen without having to speak.”
While Wilt’s piece explores water and the unifying power of the ocean, Conz, who’s from Brazil and has a background in African and Brazilian dances, will explore eggs in relation to democracy.
“There will be eggs,” Johnson said. “Some are rubber.”
But the overarching theme of the show is reflected in its title, “Uncharted.”
“This uncharted model of having an in-residence company collaborating and performing alongside the students,” Conz said. “There’s a lot of uncharted territory there. The themes are also uncharted in some ways.”