By: Rebecca Capozzi | Staff Writer and Treasurer
There was nothing I was more excited about then being able to watch a live performance again. This was my first time in a theater since February 2020, just two weeks before the entire world practically shut down. The last performance I had gone to was the Extensions Dance Company’s performance, so what more of a perfect way to come back into the theater then by seeing them perform once again. Let me tell you, it felt like no time had gone by and no pandemic had ever happened (besides the masks and social distancing, of course).
The first act of the performance was a collection of four pieces that were choreographed by Salve Dance faculty and guest artists. One of the pieces was even choreographed completely on Zoom, because the choreographer was all the way in Arizona. The execution of the piece was indistinguishable from the others that had been choreographed in-person. Each piece brought a different energy to the stage, from being graceful and light, to being electric and upbeat. With each piece, I felt like I was watching an entire story unfold right before my eyes. That is what I most look forward to when watching dance pieces, so I definitely was not disappointed.
“We often are too busy looking down at our phones that we don’t even see or notice someone right in front of us. I know I am guilty of this too, but I wanted my piece to highlight this issue,”
During the second and third acts of the performance, students had the opportunity to have their own pieces performed. Normally, there is a separate Student Choreography Showcase performed in the Black Box Theater for student choreographers. However, this year the department decided to combine their usual spring performance with their Student Choreography Showcase, which students like Bekah Mendoza, ’21, found very exciting.
“To have both of my works on stage with all the lighting and effects was amazing. It felt like my work meant that much more when it was onstage rather than in the Black Box [Theater],” Mendoza said.
It was actually one of Mendoza’s pieces that really caught my attention and left me thinking long after the performance had ended. This piece was called Error 404: Connection Not Found and was performed by two dancers: Isabella Demelo ’23 and Morgan George ’22. Throughout the piece, the dancers held smart phones and were constantly looking at them. They would continuously drop the phones and then go right to pick them up. The purpose of this piece was to show how we are so consumed in what is going on in our phones nowadays, that we no longer pay attention to what is going on around us.
“We often are too busy looking down at our phones that we don’t even see or notice someone right in front of us. I know I am guilty of this too, but I wanted my piece to highlight this issue,” Mendoza said. This was an especially strong message in the piece. Although they were doing the same or similar choreography throughout the piece, they did not once look at each other like dancers in a duet would normally do. I found this to be extremely powerful. This piece was one that affected the audience. When the entire performance ended, I even hesitated to check my phone, the message of Mendoza’s piece stuck in the back of my head.
There was another piece in the performance that piqued my curiosity. This piece was called The Visitors and was choreographed by Isabella Difusco ’22. During her piece, the two dancers, Isabella Demelo ’23 and Maddie Gellatly ’23, were running and dancing around a structure. This structure was made so that the dancers could do gymnastic and aerialist-like movements in the piece. This was important for Difusco to incorporate in her piece, due to her background is as an aerialist and an artistic gymnast.
“I came to the conclusion that creating a structure to have dancers move in conversation with would be the best way to express who I am as an artist and where my training comes from,” Difusco said.
The message behind the piece was the idea that there are two different versions of a person: the person who they are now and the person that they see themselves as or want to be.
“I wanted to explore the moments when an individual arrives at the destination they have been striving for and the realizations that come with that,” Difusco said. I could definitely see the portrayal of this message throughout the piece. There was a constant glaring at the structure, and the dancers would sometimes go and use it. I saw this as “dipping their toes” into what their futures could be like. The piece ended with one of the dancers using the structure, which signified that she finally became the person that she wanted to be.
This is a theme that Difusco has been working with since last fall. However, she said that COVID definitely had an impact on the portrayal of this message. If it were not for her time off-campus when the pandemic first began, she would not have had the time to self-reflect and learn about how to story tell through movement outside of the studio. If anything, it seems as though COVID has opened people’s minds to different ways to perform and storytell through dance, which is an advancement we probably would not have seen, if not for the pandemic.
Both Mendoza and Difusco said that it was surreal to see their pieces being performed on stage in front of a live audience. It was rewarding for them to see all of their semester’s hard work shown to and appreciated by others.
“Seeing the finished product is like getting a good grade on a paper you spent so much time and effort writing,” said Difusco.
For Mendoza, this is the last time that she is going to have this experience at Salve, as she is graduating in May with her nursing degree. She said that being on the Casino Theatre stage for the last time was a very emotional experience. She is so grateful for all of the opportunities that Extensions and Salve has given her. However, she is deeply saddened to be leaving her dance family.
“Whatever you give to this program, you will receive tenfold, and I think that is a beautiful thing”
“Going into the studio every day and just seeing and being with my friends, joking around backstage, or even cheering each other on from the wings are things that you just can’t find in other places, and I will miss it all dearly,” Mendoza said. One of her favorite things about the dance program are the plentiful opportunities that the dancers are given.
“Whatever you give to this program, you will receive tenfold, and I think that is a beautiful thing,” she said.
Seeing an amazing performance with talented dancers is only one of the many incentives to go and see the Extensions Dance Company’s future performances. There is such a beautiful community of dancers and faculty behind those curtains. Each and every one of them works so hard, whether it is in technique classes, rehearsals, or performances. If these reason are not reason enough to go out and support the Extensions Dance Company, I do not know what is.
