Arts & Culture
Students dance the night away at Afterimages
Arts and Culture Reporter
December is here and dance majors are hard at work putting together this year’s Afterimages show. There will be much to look forward to opening night, especially that the performance is taking place in the studio theater this year.
“I’m excited to work in the studio theater because it’s such an intimate setting. We have the audience on three sides of us and it has been a good challenge to incorporate that into our pieces,” said Brittany Vukovich, assistant director of Afterimages.
Afterimages is a student-run and choreographed show that always takes place early December. Michael Estanich is the faculty advisor for the show and acts as a mentor to the students to make sure everything runs smoothly. This year, the production team consists of senior Lindsey Fisher and juniors Amy Larson and Brittany Vukovich.
The production team makes sure all the behind-the-scenes work runs smoothly, such as publicity, show order and the program. They also help to accommodate people’s needs, said Vukovich, although that’s not all. The production team has been hard at work since auditions started in the beginning of the school year.
In the first weeks of school, auditions are held by the choreographers to decide who they want in their pieces. After weeks of practice, all the groups try out in mid-October in front of a panel of judges. The judges consist of faculty members and one dance student who is not involved in the production. The panel of judges decides which pieces will go into the show.
This year, eight works were selected, but it depends each year. Estanich said they will always select the most ready works. There are 15-21 pieces that try out and anywhere from 8-12 works will be selected each year for the final show.
Although Estanich is the faculty advisor for the Afterimages show, other faculty are often invited to practices throughout the process to give feedback to the dancers.
“It’s really about the learning and creative process,” said Estanich.
This year, the choreographers were faced with the challenge of performing in the studio theater. The studio theater is a thrust stage, which means there are three sides to the stage rather than just one. This makes it more challenging to choreograph because they need to include all three sides of the audience rather than just one, said Larson.
“When we first heard, many people didn’t take it as a positive thing,” said Larson about performing in the studio theater. But last spring the faculty held their show in the studio theater which opened up their minds to the idea.
“Now it’s an honor to perform there,” said Larson.
Usually Afterimages is only held one weekend, but since the performance is taking place in the studio theater, Estanich made sure there would be two weekends of performances. The studio theater has about half the seats of the Jenkins Theater, which is where they normally perform, so Estanich wanted to be sure the same number of seats would be open.
Opening night is just around the corner and everyone seems very excited about it. Estanich said the audience will have a lot to look forward to, including a well- organized, professional experience.
“I’ve seen a lot of the works already, but I’m really looking forward to how the lighting and costumes and performance aspects tie in to really bring these pieces to life in the Studio Theater,” said Vukovich.
With a wide variety of styles and approaches, a lot of the work is a very personal experience which the audience should be able to relate to, said Estanich.
With all the beautifully crafted dance, “It’s going to be an energized and exciting night,” said Estanich.
Performances will be held Dec. 5-7 and 10-12 in the Studio Theater. All the evening performances begin at 7:30 p.m. and the matinee performance on Dec. 7 will be held at 2 p.m. For ticketing information, contact the University Information and Ticket Center at 715-346-4242 or uwsp.edu/centers/uit/ordering.asp.
