Research and Writing by: Charlie Foy
This year’s Spring Dance Concert: Art in Motion has a captivating theme. Each choreographed dance has a unique art piece that directly inspired the choreographers in some way. From street art to sculptures, locally showcased to internationally renowned, The art pieces that inspired this concert could not be more diverse. This gives the viewer a unique opportunity to witness firsthand how art inspires art.
As Dramaturg for the concert, It was my job to research each art piece to give the audience a peak into the worlds that inspired our faculty, friends, and peers to create their performances. The following information is here to give a chance for you, the audience, to fully connect to the process.
See the Spring Dance Concert May 4-6 at 7:30pm and May 7 at 2:30pm in Coger Theatre.
Piano Joint
Choreographer: Angi Griffee
Inspired by: Nighthawks by Edward Hopper, 1942.
About the Art:
Edward Hopper was regarded as the most important realist painter of the 20th century. With his art reflecting not simply reality, but the temperament and emotions behind any given setting. In Nighthawks, his most famous piece, now resides in the Art Institute Chicago. At first glance you might notice an all-night diner in the middle of a sleeping city. A few customers filling the night with conversation or thought. At second glance, the emptiness of the streets and the absence of any exit out of the diner. It isn’t till this second glance that the audience sees the true message behind the piece. When asked about Nighthawks Hopper remarked, “unconsciously, probably, I was painting the loneliness of a large city.”
About the Dance:
Piano Joint explores missing connections; more specifically, it’s inspired by the crushing weight of everything we went through during the pandemic. How it changed how we connect with others. How it changed even our willingness to connect.
Synecdoche
Choreographer: Azaria Hogans
Inspired By: Alias by MTO, 2012.
About the Art:
MTO, short for Mateo, is an anonymous street artist famous for his large-scale portraits all around Europe. Alias was made towards the end of his Berlin career, following his signature grayscale style found in most of his works. Originally born in France, MTO moved to Berlin in 2006 where he gained his fame. Bordering surrealistic and realistic, MTO makes his pieces vocal, space-oriented, and eccentric in the street art scene.
About the Dance:
Synecdoche: when a part represents a whole. Inspired by the poem “To Society” by Julie Martinez and Alias, a piece of street artwork by MTO, this dance explores the different vignettes that people find themselves playing within small groups and society as a whole. What roles do you play?
Sun Target
Choreographer: Ilana Goldman
Inspired By: Sun Target II by John Henry, 1973.
About the Art:
Henry was an internationally acclaimed sculptor known for his steel sculptures. Each piece, whether just a few feet tall or monumental, required unique constructions to provide the seamless appearance that came to be synonymous with his work. Sun Target II was originally showcased in Grant Park in Chicago, IL, before traveling to New York and Atlanta in different urban sculpture parks. Eventually, it found its permanent home at the Springfield Art Museum. Henry once stated when explaining his work, “Years ago cultures had a visual language and understood it. Now, though, we are out of practice and are still trying to understand. We have the need for language as a reference rather than experience as a reference. Art is not necessarily for immediate communication, but the experience of learning experience itself.”
About the Dance:
The dance features performers portraying the interlocking beams of Henry’s sculpture. Exploring the title of the piece, the choreography tells what happens once the sun sets and the beams come alive.
Bob’s Workshop
Choreographer: Bob Fosse, arranged by Sarah Wilcoxon.
Inspired By: Bob’s Workshop by Robert Schwieger, 2011.
About the Art:
Robert Schweiger was a professional artist known for his distinct style. Seeing clear influence from the Pop Art movement in the late 1960s, many of his pieces feature loud colors and shapes, and Bob’s Workshop is no different. Like many of his other pieces, this piece was made with reverse screen printing on reflective glass, giving the piece riveting visual complexity. The end result is a crowded piece of movement and color all intermingling into a fascinating narrative.
About the Dance:
The choreography found in Bob’s Workshop, the dance, all come from various Bob Fosse pieces from across his career. Sarah Wilcoxon was immediately inspired to arrange Bob Fosse’s work through the lens of Schweiger’s art, with both Bobs expressing similar attraction to business. What follows is a wonderful collaboration of ideas.
Cloud of Color
Choreographers/Directors: Pat Heslip and Jessica Staples
Inspired By: Tilted Sky by Anne Lindberg, 2016.
About the Art:
Anne Lindberg is a widely renowned visual artist with a long history of large-scale 2D and 3D drawings. Her art, often sight-specific, transcends conventional framing, giving the audience a unique and exciting experience. Tilted Sky is unable to be properly photographed for this reason. The installation, currently at the Springfield Art Museum, spans the ceiling of a 30 foot corridor. Inspired by light shining through a barrel-vaulted hall, Lindberg attempts to bring the sky inside through thousands of single colored threads stapled high above the viewer. Tilted Sky provides a euphoric and immersive experience worth traveling to see.
About the Dance:
The Choreographers Pat Heslip and Jessica Staples have long wanted to respond to Tilted Sky ever since the piece was installed in 2016. Many parts of Cloud of Color try to encapsulate the viewer’s experience gazing up at the multi-colored threads. For example, the LED tube lights mimic the geometry witnessed in Lindberg’s work. Look out for parts of the film where the dancers portray their own connections with the sky through the choreography.
S.N.A.F.U.
Choreographer: Sarah Wilcoxon
Assistant Choreographer: Sam Wise
Inspired By: Untitled Sculpture by Jacob Burmood, 2005.
About the Art:
Jacob Burmood is a Sculptist known for capturing movement within his pieces. Burmood grew up in Springfield and is also a Missouri State University Alumni. As an artist, he works with many different mediums including, ceramic, resin, aluminum, and bronze. According to Burmood, this untitled sculpture was made to capture the “ephemeral experience” of dancing at a rave. He went on to write, “Rave culture and dance have been a singular source of inspiration in my work and the two have been intertwined for me for two decades.”
About the Dance:
S.N.A.F.U. tries to capture the contained movement found in Wise’s untitled sculpture. Movement that is pressurized and ready to burst, but has nowhere to go. Two dancers are trapped pretending everything is ok in a world where everything isn’t, and the pressure is building.
Dreamers
Choreographer: Sarah Wilcoxon
Inspired By: Punk Art Lovers by Frieda Logan, 1985.
About the Art:
Frieda Logan was a local Springfield artist who was very active in the Springfield art community up until her passing. Punk Art Lovers was one of the pieces gifted, by Logan, to the Springfield Art Museum in 2004. Punk Art Lovers is an acrylic painting featuring three ‘punks’ viewing a painting of colorful dogs in an art gallery. This unique framing peaks the audience’s interest as they, like the ‘punks’, would most likely be viewing this piece in a gallery. When describing her work, Logan once stated, “My paintings are carefully planned and executed with no room for happy accidents.”
About the Dance:
Dreamers’ choreography by Sarah Wilcoxon attempts to conceptualize the complex ideas of Punk Art Lovers. The wild dogs trapped within a painting, observational punks, and the bold colors all culminate into an exploration of punk idealism and villainizing the pursuit of a better reality.
Unknowable
Choreographer: Josephine Hale
Inspired By: The Lovers by René Maggitte, 1928.
About the Art:
A Belgian artist most famously known for his painting entitled: The Son of Man, René Maggitte is renowned as one of the most famous surrealist artists of the 20th century. The Lovers clearly explores a theme of frustrated desires; Something that can be noticed in many of his other works. As an artist, enshrouded faces are reoccuring motif. In this painting, two lovers are separated by cloth barriers unable to intimately embrace, showcasing instead a realm of isolation. When describing his works Maggitte once said, “When one sees one of my pictures, one asks oneself this simple question, ‘What does it mean?’ It does not mean anything, because mystery means nothing either, it is unknowable.”
About the Dance:
Inspired by the mystery Maggitte shrouds his art in, choreographer Josephine Hale tried to capture the unknown behind The Lovers painting. Hale wants to leave the viewer intrigued, curious, and inspired to weave their own interpretation of Unknowable.
Divine Roots
Choreographer: Chelsea Deters
Inspired By: Lady Gaia, The Essence of Life by Carmen A Scheid, 2022.
About the Art:
Carmen Scheid is a commercial digital artist and oil painter. Scheid used AI software to create the base image. Then, she used a color correcting process to enhance and embellish into the final product. AI art is a controversial topic in the art community today. Critics view AI Art as a form of plagiarism, as many AI databases use human art as the catalyst for generated images, while supporters view this rhetoric as dismissing the newest medium, much like many other past “phases” of art. At the end of the day, AI digital art, like Lady Gaia, The Essence of Life, is still capable of instilling emotional responses and providing further inspiration for future art, as demonstrated here today.
About the Dance:
Chelsea Deters, when choreographing this piece, was inspired by the immense amount of light and color emanating from the woman, even when the woman herself is covered in darkness. When describing the piece she wrote, “She emerges from deep within. Rising from the ashes of the past, of her ancestors. She isn’t meant to be tamed and is full of beauty and power. She is divine. She is a goddess.”