Twelve is an SFU dance production featuring 12 student-choreographed pieces from different styles of contemporary dance.
It is a wonderful opportunity for students to showcase their talents in choreography and performance, and to give dancers a platform to participate in a well-produced program. The choreographers were also given the unique chance to work with lighting designers.
Students from every year of the dance program are participating in the show, either as a choreographer, performer, or both.
“The program provides a scope of talent at SFU, from graduating students to first years,” according to Kayla DeVos, one of the artistic directors for the show. “The show will be a comprehensive sample of the work SFU students are producing.”
From solos to duets and large group pieces to video projections, finding an underlying theme for the show is challenging. Each piece is diverse in style, origin, and process.
A number of pieces were developed through classwork, stemming from the creation of movements that contrasted the dancers’ natural tendencies. “They needed to find something that is outside of their comfort zone and to think outside the box,” said stage manager Wilson Terng.
Other pieces were developed independently. Artistic director Desi Rekrut noted that some students drew from outside sources, while others searched inward for inspiration.
Development of the production began at the end of the fall semester last year, when students presented their pieces in auditions. The submissions were then selected by a panel of judges. The students have put tremendous amounts of hard work into each of the pieces, Treng noted. Some have been rehearsing and refining their piece for months.
One of the two video projections featured in the show will be a summary of the students’ experiences within another culture; they explored the outer extremities of the human body as they reflected on the similarities found in diversity. Another piece experiments with the connection between light and sound, and their relationship with movement and space.
“I personally have a preference towards group pieces. It’s just interesting to see the synchronization and then the whole group movement [where] everyone is all in sync and moving as one,” Treng said. “It’s quite elegant, I find.”
As Rekrut pointed out, the pieces “are all so different — it’ll be more of an experience.”
