There’s an obvious disconnect between the ballet and modern dance departments: Ballet majors rule the basement floor of the Marriott Center for Dance, and modern students own the top level. They all eat, sleep and breathe dance under a single roof but aren’t given an outlet to join their respective talents.
Two dance students — one ballet, one modern — sought to change this.
“I’d been entertaining ideas about putting on a show since last year,” said junior modern dance student Cressa Perloff. Perloff is the coproducer of “Studio 140,” this weekend’s collaborative show that aims to bridge the gap between the ballet and modern dance departments.
Last September, Perloff choreographed a solo for Ballet Showcase I on ballet student Michelle Thieme. During this process, Perloff was in contact with many ballet majors for the first time, she said.
“Through the school curriculum, ballet and modern dance majors normally have no contact with one another, except maybe while microwaving lunch or getting ice,” Perloff said. “But in the dance world outside the university, there is not such a differentiation. The repertoire of most dance companies requires both skills.”
For coproducer and senior ballet performance major Christopher Peddecord, “Studio 140” is a way to break free from limitations imposed by the dancers’ respective departments.
“I wanted to put together a show that was not limited by departmental boundaries,” he said, referencing the strict, six-minute time limit put on students when given their biyearly opportunity to choreograph work for Ballet Showcases I and II.
Peddecord, who has choreographed a total of six pieces for Showcase performances, worked around this limitation by choreographing two separate pieces for last fall’s performance.
“I had wanted to choreograph a much longer work to really sink my teeth into,” he said.
After discussing a potential student show with peers, Peddecord and Perloff decided on a collaborative dance concert between the two departments.
“The show is called ‘Studio 140’ because the modern dance performance studio on the third floor (of the MCD) is studio 240 and the ballet performance studio on the first floor is studio 40,” Perloff said.
“One-forty is somewhere in between the two,” Peddecord said. “It’s somewhere that doesn’t exist that definitely should.”
Although the goal of “Studio 140” is to create a union between ballet and modern dancers, students in the production have yet to interact with dancers outside of their departments.
Junior ballet major Hailey Bill choreographed a piece for “Studio 140” that features only dancers from her department, a trend for every piece in the show, with the exception of one of Perloff’s original works. However, Bill said she is still looking forward to “seeing the modern pieces together with the ballet pieces.”
“It’s more of a venue for the modern and ballet majors to showcase work in the same space,” said Peddecord, who planned to choreograph on modern dance as well as ballet majors but couldn’t because of time and scheduling constraints.
Perloff explained that the biggest challenge in working across departments is the different dance and rehearsal habits each department has.
Some might see the departments’ inability to mingle as ironic, but Peddecord sees the juxtaposition of the two genres as an opportunity.
“The two together form a really fertile breeding ground for artistic thought,” he said.
Studio 140Fri., April 4, 7:30 p.m.Sat., April 5, 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.The Post Theater245 S Fort Douglas Blvd. (by the dorms)Tickets are $5 for students and $7 for general admission, available at the door