The spotlight turns on Available Light and four MFA students in York’s dance program. September 24 marks the premier of this year’s I Am series, featuring solo autobiographical dance performances that shed some light on four students’ journeys. The solo performances mark a transition for second year master’s students, who after a year of choreographic study are able to present their works on a public stage. This particular performance, held at the McLean Performance Studio, is titled Available Light. Carol Anderson, creative director of the I Am series, says the show was named due to the performances being presented in whatever available lighting they have. “It seems an apt metaphor for the way in which artists work with the resources that they have at hand, and in mind and heart, at the moment of creative expression,” said Anderson. Available Light spotlights students of diverse backgrounds, including Nikolaos Markakis, Allison McCaughey, Suma Nair, and Michelle Silagy. Having survived their first year in their master’s program together, the quartet of dancers regularly collaborate and together comprise a diverse show. Markakis, who is dancing to live music, drew inspiration from folklorish and contemporary dance for his performance titled Ithaka. The title comes from a Greek poem that transcribes the 10-year-long journey from Troy to the island of Ithaka. “I am using Ithaka as a metaphor for my journey from my past to my present and hopes of my future,” added Markakis. McCaughey, a former chorus dancer, named her solo Third from the Left, a play on her position in a chorus line. A more commercial performance, the solo is meant to represent how the business of entertainment is an all-consuming aspect of dance, particularly McCaughey’s experience. Nair incorporates traditional Bharatanatyam Indian dance into her contemporary piece Belong.Influenced by personal narratives and cultural memories, this dance performance is a re-imagining of traditional dance to a contemporary audience. Silagy’s solo, titled …at the end of a stem, is a piece inspired by nature and a garden, environments which often influenced her MFA research. “It becomes a portal through which to pursue a fine attunement of my relationship to air, exhalation, respiration, impulse, nuance, gravity, and the natural world,” said Silagy. The I Am solos are one of three research components that the students go through, which culminate to a self-produced thesis concert in collaboration with York’s theatre production program. The public performances are open to all, and allow for students to embody their critical research into physical practices in front of an audience.
Victoria Goldberg, Arts Editor.
