Winthrop University Fall Dance Showcase
Thursday, November 17, 2022, Johnson Theatre
The Sandbox
Reviewed by Marissa Nesbit, PhD, MFA, Assistant Professor and Dance Education Coordinator, The University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Beginning the second act was Gabrielle Tull’s “Sandbox,” a delightful quartet that made use of a red seesaw built for the work, set to a score by Alice Coltrane featuring Pharoah Sanders. I found Prof. Tull’s piece particularly skillful and engrossing, and it is one of those works that I would gladly view again and again if possible so that I could attend to the many details and layers within the dance. “Sandbox” begins with a simple premise: it “explores the lives of children at the playground as they navigate boundaries, commonalities, and freedom” (Tull, program note). With the large seesaw looming over the upstage right area and the dancers dressed in shorts, overalls, and socks reminiscent of children’s play clothes, it would be easy for a work to fall victim to sentiment and become a cheesy and idyllic, easily forgettable fluff piece. “Sandbox” does none of this: while it never becomes especially dark, it does honor young people’s full humanity and steers clear of the “cuteness” that sometimes plagues similar works that seek to reflect on childhood.
The dance begins with a sound score of overlapping voices reflecting children at play outdoors before morphing into Coltrane’s swirling jazz composition. Dancers play on the seesaw, their up and down motions lulling the viewer into a sense of kinesthetic familiarity that is then carried throughout. As the piece evolves, the dancers change positions and relationships to the seesaw and wander away from it through growing, twisting, playful movement phrases, always anchored by the familiar up, down, up, down of the seesaw. Movement phrases draw forth toys unseen: a ball, jacks, a swing appear in our imaginations and then disappear as the dancers move on. The suspended yet predictable movement quality of the seesaw grounds everything even as it lifts us--a breath, steady, always there to return to.
Choreographically, “Sandbox” is a master class in the principle of unity without unison. By grounding in but not tethering the movement phrases to the motion of the seesaw and building key movement motifs that appear throughout, Tull creates a fully imagined and coherent world for her dancers. The performers—a group of students who present with different racial and gender identities—brilliantly leverage their individuality without drawing undue attention away from the group or the movement phrases. Moments of true unison—all dancers doing the same actions at the same time—are few, as a variety of solo, duet, and trio groupings pop up, interact, and dissolve. The characters find playmates, propose a game, play awhile, and as it ends, they disperse, regrouping again with another friend, another game, another way to climb on, slide down, hang under, or teeter on top of the seesaw. Relationships underpin the work, and while the staging is clearly designed for presentation to an audience, one gets the feeling of passing by a playground and seeing children absorbed in their play, unconcerned with passers-by. The end result is a feeling of suspension: both the airborne quality of being on the up end of the seesaw, as well as the sense of being temporarily pulled out of the present and lulled into a dreamlike and hazy state (accentuated by the endless-sunset quality of John P. Woodley’s lighting design.)
Concert Review by Naimah Kisoki
Broken Regimen
Winthrop University Dance Theatre
November 12, 2021
Presented by Gabrielle Tull, Broken Regimen is a work that reflects on ways to find fluidity in a regimented environment. Performed by Donovan Granville (soloist), Ava Maldanado, Brooke Nelson, and Trinity Robinson and danced to the music score (Thunder and Rain)/Love is Stronger That Pride by Sade (Remastered by Kaytranada), Tull explores how environment shapes reality, and investigates how breaks, rhythm and grooves can dismantle our need to stay in confined boxes.
The piece opens in near darkness and strobe lights begin to flash simulating lightning. Blue lights gradually illuminate the stage, and dancers are revealed in silhouette facing upstage performing energetic percussive arm work. This element was particularly striking from the front of house, which drew me into the work further. The dancers are seen wearing army pants and close fitted tops performing repetitive movement phrases lead by Granville as the female performers responded in kind depicting “call and response” relationships that rested in the music’s back beat. Tull’s choice of persistent, angular, and staccato rhythm sets also resemble militarized occupational functions illustrating her description of the ‘societal assembly line’ in her artist statement. The dancers, relentlessly connected with the music working with, through, and against the pulse; navigating whether or not to maintain or break free from their phrase. I connect this notion contemporaneously – when faced with adversity, humanity has a way of circumventing hindrances by finding new pathways, pushing forward.
In transition to the second movement, the music began to ease and the dancers moved through new relationships on stage from a solo to duets and trios seamlessly sliding into a groove, yet maintaining the heartbeat of the initial movement quality. By the end of the work, dancers have fully broken away from the initial regimented vernacular exhibiting freedom of the spirit with elasticity, individuality, and vibrancy.
Overall, Tull’s work was well executed and well within the capabilities of the dancers. I found this work to be a refreshing addition to the program as it brought about a unique approach to connect performance and critical thinking. Well done!
Thursday, November 17, 2022, Johnson Theatre
The Sandbox
Reviewed by Marissa Nesbit, PhD, MFA, Assistant Professor and Dance Education Coordinator, The University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Beginning the second act was Gabrielle Tull’s “Sandbox,” a delightful quartet that made use of a red seesaw built for the work, set to a score by Alice Coltrane featuring Pharoah Sanders. I found Prof. Tull’s piece particularly skillful and engrossing, and it is one of those works that I would gladly view again and again if possible so that I could attend to the many details and layers within the dance. “Sandbox” begins with a simple premise: it “explores the lives of children at the playground as they navigate boundaries, commonalities, and freedom” (Tull, program note). With the large seesaw looming over the upstage right area and the dancers dressed in shorts, overalls, and socks reminiscent of children’s play clothes, it would be easy for a work to fall victim to sentiment and become a cheesy and idyllic, easily forgettable fluff piece. “Sandbox” does none of this: while it never becomes especially dark, it does honor young people’s full humanity and steers clear of the “cuteness” that sometimes plagues similar works that seek to reflect on childhood.
The dance begins with a sound score of overlapping voices reflecting children at play outdoors before morphing into Coltrane’s swirling jazz composition. Dancers play on the seesaw, their up and down motions lulling the viewer into a sense of kinesthetic familiarity that is then carried throughout. As the piece evolves, the dancers change positions and relationships to the seesaw and wander away from it through growing, twisting, playful movement phrases, always anchored by the familiar up, down, up, down of the seesaw. Movement phrases draw forth toys unseen: a ball, jacks, a swing appear in our imaginations and then disappear as the dancers move on. The suspended yet predictable movement quality of the seesaw grounds everything even as it lifts us--a breath, steady, always there to return to.
Choreographically, “Sandbox” is a master class in the principle of unity without unison. By grounding in but not tethering the movement phrases to the motion of the seesaw and building key movement motifs that appear throughout, Tull creates a fully imagined and coherent world for her dancers. The performers—a group of students who present with different racial and gender identities—brilliantly leverage their individuality without drawing undue attention away from the group or the movement phrases. Moments of true unison—all dancers doing the same actions at the same time—are few, as a variety of solo, duet, and trio groupings pop up, interact, and dissolve. The characters find playmates, propose a game, play awhile, and as it ends, they disperse, regrouping again with another friend, another game, another way to climb on, slide down, hang under, or teeter on top of the seesaw. Relationships underpin the work, and while the staging is clearly designed for presentation to an audience, one gets the feeling of passing by a playground and seeing children absorbed in their play, unconcerned with passers-by. The end result is a feeling of suspension: both the airborne quality of being on the up end of the seesaw, as well as the sense of being temporarily pulled out of the present and lulled into a dreamlike and hazy state (accentuated by the endless-sunset quality of John P. Woodley’s lighting design.)
Concert Review by Naimah Kisoki
Broken Regimen
Winthrop University Dance Theatre
November 12, 2021
Presented by Gabrielle Tull, Broken Regimen is a work that reflects on ways to find fluidity in a regimented environment. Performed by Donovan Granville (soloist), Ava Maldanado, Brooke Nelson, and Trinity Robinson and danced to the music score (Thunder and Rain)/Love is Stronger That Pride by Sade (Remastered by Kaytranada), Tull explores how environment shapes reality, and investigates how breaks, rhythm and grooves can dismantle our need to stay in confined boxes.
The piece opens in near darkness and strobe lights begin to flash simulating lightning. Blue lights gradually illuminate the stage, and dancers are revealed in silhouette facing upstage performing energetic percussive arm work. This element was particularly striking from the front of house, which drew me into the work further. The dancers are seen wearing army pants and close fitted tops performing repetitive movement phrases lead by Granville as the female performers responded in kind depicting “call and response” relationships that rested in the music’s back beat. Tull’s choice of persistent, angular, and staccato rhythm sets also resemble militarized occupational functions illustrating her description of the ‘societal assembly line’ in her artist statement. The dancers, relentlessly connected with the music working with, through, and against the pulse; navigating whether or not to maintain or break free from their phrase. I connect this notion contemporaneously – when faced with adversity, humanity has a way of circumventing hindrances by finding new pathways, pushing forward.
In transition to the second movement, the music began to ease and the dancers moved through new relationships on stage from a solo to duets and trios seamlessly sliding into a groove, yet maintaining the heartbeat of the initial movement quality. By the end of the work, dancers have fully broken away from the initial regimented vernacular exhibiting freedom of the spirit with elasticity, individuality, and vibrancy.
Overall, Tull’s work was well executed and well within the capabilities of the dancers. I found this work to be a refreshing addition to the program as it brought about a unique approach to connect performance and critical thinking. Well done!
