By Hannah Lussier | Managing Editor
On March 3rd, Salve Regina’s Department of Music, Theatre, and Dance showcased the skills of its talented Extensions Dance Company in a performance entitled Here/Now. The show, coordinated by Artistic Director Lindsay Guarino, was the culmination of about a year of rehearsals by a troupe of 25 of the university’s best dancers. The show was composed of eleven pieces, all of which were choreographed by different artists. Of these, two were composed by students (Haley Andrews and Lauren Wyble) while the others were taught to dancers by professionals. Each piece lent its own specific slice of emotion to the show ranging from a lighthearted jazz routine to more chilling contemporary numbers.
During the show’s first half, “Deceit,” choreographed by Lauren Difede, delivered a powerful dose of creepy energy. Costumed in neutral blacks and beiges with small pops of color, the dancers were bathed in a dark red light as they moved smoothly across the stage and shot suspicious glances at one another. This piece was described by senior dancer Shannon Harrington as a story about “being caught doing something bad and what goes on in your head afterward.” The piece begins with slower movements and becomes more frenzied toward the middle as the performers struggle to justify their need to deceive.
In contrast, the hip hop piece “Underneath,” which was choreographed by Rich Ashworth, was one of the show’s most engaging. Positioned strategically before a brief intermission, “Underneath” was a bold piece that kept the attention of the audience. This dance featured the motif of a series of hand motions to demonstrate breaking away from an internal struggle, becoming more confident and watching past inhibitions fly away.
After the break for intermission, the Extensions dancers knocked out three incredible performances in a row. The first, “hi how are you? can you enable me 2 enable u again? k thx bye,” was one of the most impressive dances of the night. It featured stretches of time where no music was played and audience members were invited to investigate the relationships between two groups of interdependent dancers. Each group performed the same series of tricks and lifts simultaneously and appeared to the audience to be equal in strength. But at the end, when a single dancer further examines each side, she decides to join the stronger of the two. As a result, she leaves the other group to collapse on the floor, demonstrating their inability to support her weight.
The next performance, “Perhaps,” was an eclectic piece choreographed by Spencer Gavin Hering and performed by Haley Andrews or Marissa Masson (Andrews performed it on Friday and Saturday evening while Masson performed on Thursday night and Saturday afternoon). This piece featured the prop of a coconut which was thrown about throughout the performance and meant to signify a difficult love interest. “Perhaps” was a favorite piece of senior and choreographer Andrews because she says that it shows that there are people and things that we might be in love with “but need to go away in order to better ourselves.”
The last and most impactful of the three powerhouses at the end of the show was a piece choreographed by Andrews called “1,968.4 Miles of Vulnerability.” This number was one of nine works to be chosen out of almost 50 for the Gala Performance at the 2018 New England Region American College Dance Association Conference. Andrews explains that the work was inspired by her long distance relationship with her girlfriend who currently lives in Colorado. Andrews states that she wanted the dance to illustrate the “strong bond of trust” that is needed for a couple to “keep being together” despite being so far apart. At the end of the piece, the two dancers become like one person as they “share their vulnerability” with one another.
