At age 7, Monica Thomas ventured into the world of pliés and tendus. She never turned back. Now, as a graduating senior, Thomas has spent nearly 12 hours (which she deems “quick”) choreographing a piece she will perform at the Senior Dance Concert, a show presented by Northwestern’s graduating dance majors.
“For this project, I didn’t have a very structured or exact vision in mind,” says Thomas. “I knew a few things going into the process. I wanted to use text. I wanted the movement to be sort of pedestrian and to be generated naturally from the dancers’ bodies.”
For inspiration, Thomas read various literature from Khalil Gibran poetry to a William S. Burroughs story. Some text has ended up in the performance, spoken by the dancers.
“I wanted to work with strong dancers who I knew were capable of generating movement and who were also capable of speaking while dancing, dancing while speaking,” says Thomas. “I have a great cast and they’ve been very receptive to the process.”
This year’s show is titled Ready Ready Go and and will run at 8 p.m. each of the nights of May 26th, 27th and 28th in the Marjorie Ward Marshall Dance Center. Each dance major will perform their individual piece and the entire class will perform a work choreographed by Julia Rhoads of Lucky Plush Productions.
“This is the sort of dance that is really enlivened by its performance in front of an audience,” says Thomas. “I’m fairly confident it is going to turn out how I see it in my head.”
Find out more about Monica at Monica-Thomas.com.
Anthony M. Del Gigante
Ben Millstein
Alexandra Sifferlin
Matthew Alfonso
Music – “A Million And One Questions” by Jay-Z and DJ Premier
// INTERVIEW
Massive.tv: What is your piece about?
Monica Thomas: It’s trying to call into question any medium of communication and how imperfect they all are. We live in a world where text is definitely considered the “king” as far as communication goes and I am trying to question that. But, I don’t think dance is a perfect medium either. I think it serves a different purpose.
M.tv: What has this project meant to you?
MT: It means a lot of things to me. The nature of dance is people get what they want out of it. It’s the natural tendency for people to construct a narrative. This doesn’t have a linear narrative, but if that’s what you want to make of it, you can. Otherwise, it means a lot of things to me about transience and communication, human interaction and performance. It means a lot to me personally too. It means a lot about memory and people in your life. Many of the elements that have gone into it have been chosen because of dear personal ties. But I don’t think it is so personal to the point of being autobiographical. I want every person watching to have their own experience and their own take on what it expresses.
M.tv: You incorporated literature into your piece. What is your favorite piece of literature?
MT: This question is hard. Shel Silverstein? I’ve been reading a lot of Murakami lately—when I’m not trying to pass classes. I’ve read all of Salinger, though that isn’t much of a feat.
M.tv: Why do you love dance?
MT: There’s nothing else that I want to do. It has just kind of happened this way. I haven’t been able to stop and I’m going to try and keep going.
M.tv: What is your favorite dance style?
MT: Probably modern/contemporary. But that in itself is a varied genre. I’m still trying to figure out which mode of performance fits me best, and I don’t really want to nail myself down just yet.
M.tv: What style do you find most challenging?
MT: I never had super strict ballet training growing up, so ballet is always a struggle. Outside of dance styles, anything quick is usually harder for me. But then, if you aren’t struggling, what’s the point? If something isn’t a struggle anymore, it is because I’m letting myself, my brain or my body, be lazy. As soon as I feel like dance isn’t a struggle, it is probably time for me to quit. It’s just a matter of keeping it HTTP/1.1 200 OK
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