Erin Debold '07, Onstage
In early December, Barnard dance students performed in the second annual Barnard Project at Dance Theater Workshop. The four performances were the culmination of choreographic residencies by Dance Theater Workshop (DTW) artists who collaborated with the students.
Erin Debold '07 was one of those students, taking time out of a hectic class schedule this past semester to work with choreographer and adjunct faculty member David Neumann on one of four pieces, Insert Title Here, or A Coward's Shoes. (Other DTW artists included Jeanine Durning, Gabri Christa, and Reggie Wilson.)
Below, Debold talks about the difference between on-campus and real world performances, and how she managed to do this while finishing up her senior thesis.
I transferred here sophomore year. I was in a musical theatre conservatory and wanted to have more dance access. I didn't necessarily know if I wanted that through the university or not. But New York is such a great resource for dance that if I didn't find it at Barnard, I knew I'd find it somewhere else in the city. Luckily, I found a really wonderful dance department here.
Compared to most dance degrees, the academic side of the dance department here impressed me. Most of the time your dance technique classes count as full classes for dance degrees. At Barnard there's still such a great focus on the academic and the other side of dance. And there's the great wealth of faculty and of classes in different styles of dance. In almost every academic class I've had in the department, as well some dance technique classes, there's been a push to go see things in the city. In the classroom, day one, there was huge encouragement or assigned scheduled performances to see. So right off the bat, the city became a resource for dance for me. Performance wise, I did the Dance Theatre Workshop/Barnard project last year, and that was a new experience, doing the downtown performance. I was able not only to go to the theatre, where I'd seen many dance performances before, but actually be on the stage and working in a more professional venue.
It's always hard to anticipate what that feeling is going to be like until you're on the stage. With DTW being such an institution in the dance world, there's a sort of sophistication about performing there, more so than at the Miller theatre or at Minor Latham. It seems very much in the know of the dance world, and being more on the cutting edge, rather than it being just a student production or student recital. So there's a quality of professionalism, and also a feeling that your audience has knowledge... the caliber of audience is more sophisticated.
This year with DTW, there are four new, original pieces. It's really exciting to watch these dancers who are students—they have very rigorous studies—and how beautiful they are, especially knowing they have all this crazy stuff going on at school as well. Despite the fact that they're students, it's smart, well done dance.
The rehearsals are slotted just like regular class time. We get credit for being in this production. Depending on the piece that they were cast in, some people have two rehearsals a week for three hours, each rehearsal, or, like me, a Friday rehearsal time slot. So, that is a four-hour chunk every Friday. This week has been a week of commuting and traveling to the performance space. You take the subway down there, and you have the space for 55 minutes and then the next group is on, and you're heading uptown again. It's different than doing a show uptown, because you have another rehearsal, another meeting to go to, and it's still in the same area. For me, this week especially [why this week?], was a little more taxing, because I'm like, "now I have to ride the subway, and go back home, and go to this meeting and do this." It feels a lot more ugh... it takes a lot more energy and time.
Many senior dance majors have theses due right now. On top of this big dance performance, we're also writing and trying to get everything underway. In the dance department, you can write a two-semester thesis, or write a one-semester thesis and then do a dance project for the second semester. I'm doing the one-semester, so my thesis is due this week. For about half of us, it's due right now. So we've been working as well as performing, without any time off.
Performing, it's an adventure always. I don't know if it's easier or harder now for me. I've done acting work as well. I think that dancers have a tougher job than actors, because not only are they moving and have to convey emotion without necessarily acting, but they have to convey more of a pure emotion without hiding behind words or a script or being told exactly what you should be feeling. Still, there are so many theatrical qualities to dance, in less of a guiding manner.
After I graduate in the spring, I think I really want to explore theatre and dance. I want to eventually go to graduate school, I don't know for what. I plan on auditioning for musical theatre stuff; maybe some dance companies, different performing adventures. Really, I eventually would love to choreograph. But I have to work with more choreographers to really develop my aesthetic and my style.
—As told to Dimitra Kessenides '89 on December 7, 2006
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