'Fierce' February Dance takes the stage in Krannert

Feb. 3—URBANA — When the dancers started rehearsing for "Frame of Reference," choreographer Elliot Reza Emadian had no idea what the final project would be.

Emadian is a dance lecturer at the University of Illinois who hasn't really created choreography for other people since before the pandemic.

The UI Dance Department's February Dance, hosted in the Krannert Center, seemed like the perfect time to enlist dance professor and dramaturg Betsy Brandt for help creating something with students.

"I talked to Betsy about really wanting to rediscover what making dances with other people means for me and making it in a sustainable way that doesn't feel like I'm tearing my hair out because something's not going right," Emadian said. "Obviously there's still curiosities and questions that come up in the room, but less of the anxiety, less of that feeling of needing control over what's happening in the space."

After auditions at the beginning of the fall semester, Emadian knew they would be working with students Jaden Monroe and Yuno Kimura.

Monroe is from Oklahoma, Emadian is from Tennessee, and Kimura is from Japan, though Emadian and Kimura have both lived in multiple places around the U.S.

These different backgrounds struck Emadian as an interesting source for inspiration.

"Some of the questions I asked them starting the process were, 'How did we get here?'" Emadian said. "We kind of looked at the literal geography of 'how did we get here,' but then also the more metaphorical or existential questions, like 'How did we all end up in dance?'"

Each of the artists have a slightly different background in dance; Emadian probably has the widest knowledge as an instructor, but grew up learning tap and jazz. Meanwhile, Kimura started out with formal ballet and Monroe started out with studio dance and was on drill teams.

Emadian enjoyed bringing those elements together and experimenting with choreography.

"To watch an accident happen in rehearsal — not a dangerous accident, but oh, I did the left foot instead of the right, so I'll do that again. Maybe we're tired one day, so we're going to do something slower today, and then maybe that ends up in the piece," Emadian said.

Everything from the music the dancers listened to on the way to the studio to sitting and observing after missing a rehearsal could generate ideas for "Frame of Reference."

Emadian and the dancers rehearsed for two hours a day, four days a week for eight weeks, with Brandt joining part time to bring a fresh set of eyes to the work.

The final dance came into focus over time, with final elements like lighting and costumes coming in during the final week.

Emadian compared it to opening a wrapped present step by step to reveal what's inside.

"It does kind of become a surprise at the end of the process, which is really rewarding," Emadian said.

The result confronts the audience, questioning the barrier between the proscenium stage and the rest of the auditorium.

Emadian said that even though there was no designated theme for February Dance, all five pieces do have elements of questioning how artists engage audiences.

Undergraduate student Jaymes Crowder-Acres created "Take It to the Cypher," which features dances performed in circles, from traditional African dances to club dances, that wouldn't normally be presented on a stage like Krannert's Tryon Festival Theatre.

Iranian dancer and graduate student Banafsheh Amiri choreographed a solo piece for herself called "Shout the Call (Faryad)," sharing her culture with the audience as well as her conflicted feelings about that culture.

Sojung Lim, another graduate student, likewise shared her culture through "Chronic Translation," which focuses on her need to translate between her South Korean and American lives.

Anna Peretz Rogovoy's master of fine arts thesis, "Good Girl," focuses on dominance, gender and power with a multigenerational cast.

Emadian has been working to film February Dance, so they won't be able to sit back and watch the results of all their work until the final performance at 7:30 p.m. today, but they said that opening night was great.

Even though different dancers perform each of the five pieces, they all know each other through classes and warm up together before the performance.

"It's primarily undergraduate students and they are just so fierce," Emadian said. "To see them joking around on stage, but getting warm, and then come out and just kill it is really beautiful and it's a really great community bonding experience."