For this project I was super excited to create a fully collaborative cohort piece with all the amazing people in my 1st year MFA cohort! We met once a week, where everyone would be in the studio at OSU and I would be on zoom in my living room to work on this piece. The idea first sparked from a TedTalk that Jackie had shared with the group. We then broke ourselves up into three small groups to begin making material. Quianna, Ismael, and myself worked together to create a minute-ish long phrase that we would go one at a time putting together one or two movements and then pass to the next person to continue building this phase. We went through about five cycles before we had finished our “blue group” phrase. We then reconvened as a whole group and showed each other what we made, and had people from different groups go together to see how each groups phrase work could compliment another. We then choreographed another phrase the same way as our small groups, but this time with all eight of us. We went through about three rounds of everyone imputing their own choreography to create our unison phrase near the end of the piece. With all this movement, we just needed to find a way to now build the piece.
The beginning showed each member of the cohort coming and going, finding connections to other dancers in the space while doing bits of movements from their small group phrase. We then rush forward, find a moment of stillness, and move into full chaos as we take bits and pieces from all the movements we have generated together that we rearranged and franticly performed till we all drop to the floor leaving Quianna standing. We then have a moment to slow down, breathe, and find more moments of connection within all eight of us. This leads into everyone braking into the small group phrase together, building to the full unison phrase, and ending with a jam session with all of us connecting, clapping, snapping, and grooving as we travel to the back of the space.
I was fortunate to find some time to come up to Columbus to be with everyone for the first time this semester and to show this piece in our choreography class. This was definitely the most enjoyable moment I had this semester, and it was such a great experience being about to feel like a real grad student, socialize with my cohort, utilize the amazing studios and grad offices in the Dance Department, and to experience Columbus for the first time since I auditioned in January! I’m so thankful for this amazing group I get to spend three years with and can’t wait till I can fully be a part of this cohort!
Forrest Hershey 