Meet the Choreographers-Ellen, Destiny, and Emma

Ellen Arnold (Senior) 

Can you share with our readers any concepts, ideas, or images you are exploring in your piece?

In the very first image the audience sees when Anna and I appear, I imagine that we are walking on a beach. We can feel the sand between our toes, it is dusk and the sea-salted air is chill, about 68 degrees and the wind is blowing lightly on our faces.

What experiences in your life inspire you and how do you bring that inspiration into your creative process?

What inspires me is the love that my friends and family have surrounded me with, and the power of that love is what I bring to the creative process.

What are some choreographic strategies you use during a typical rehearsal?

One strategy that I have used to create this piece, and really just all my pieces, is first I find some music that moves me. Then I identify music that makes me feel the artist’s energy and pain in their voice. I look for the music that makes me want to move, and that really just moves me to move. Another strategy I used, was when I was starting to get tired of the song, I would play another song that I gave me the same vibe and would start choreographing to that instead. 

How has this creative process helped you grow as an individual and an artist?

To let go-to just be okay with not knowing if something will work and to just go with it. I feel that this piece for me is very soulful, and typically most of the music I am attracted to has soul. I’ve learned to just trust your body and it will do what you need and ask of it.

Destiny Walker (Senior) 

Can you share with our readers any concepts, ideas, or images you are exploring in your piece?

The concept I am exploring in my piece is to highlight the contrast between self-love vs. self-hate. I am exploring the idea of using illusions to exploit one individual in 4 different people.

What experiences in your life inspire you and how do you bring that inspiration into your creative process?

The experience that inspired me to create this work was when I took an adventure to the MET museum for the first time. I became fascinated with the contemporary artwork, which started to make me think of creating a work based on gallery art pieces.  I chose a specific piece of art that highlights a self-portrait. I tried to bring the inspiration of this artwork into my work by creating these illusions of a perfect self-portrait, but then splitting it up in distorted ways through the 4 individuals.

What movement qualities are you working with (style), and how does it support your ideas?

The style I am working with is a contemporary based style. I believe it supports my ideas by using contrast and specificity in my work, as well as expressing a different vision or abstraction to my concept.

What do you hope the audience gains from viewing your work?

I hope the audience gains a new idea of one’s image in a state of self-love or self-hate. 

Emma Hoenecke (Junior) 

Can you share with our readers any concepts, ideas, or images you are exploring in your piece?

The main idea of my piece is about empathy. It’s about learning to accept people different than yourself and listening to them well. In order to truly care for someone well you need to be able to listen to him or her with your eyes, ears, words and actions. My goal is to portray these active listening skills throughout my dance to illustrate empathy.

What experiences in your life inspire you and how do you bring that inspiration into your creative process?

It seems to me that there is a lot of hurt in the world today and I believe that part of the problem is that people lack empathy. They are very focused on themselves and what other people can do for them. This me-centered way of thinking lacks the compassion it takes to help another person in need. When you actually try and see someone else’s point of view it makes it more difficult not to help them out.

What movement qualities are you working with (style), and how does it support your ideas?

To communicate my idea of empathy I am playing with different movement qualities. For example, my soloist has very smooth and flowing movements, while the rest of my dancers have very stiff and robotic movements. The contrast of these two movement qualities is used to show how people differ from one another. As the dance continues the group of dancers moving robotically will start to join the soloist in her flowing movement quality. This symbolizes them trying to reach out to the soloist and feel what she is feeling.

How has this creative process helped you grow as an individual and an artist?

This creative process has pushed me to think beyond what I thought I could create. I am a very concrete thinker so this choreographic process has pushed me to think in abstract ways. It has developed my artistry by challenging me to make movement meaningful and thought provoking. This process has forced me to take a step back and look at areas of my life where I could show more compassion.