(Evan Cantwell/Creative Services)
There’s more to the annual Mason Dance Gala than the audience can see.
This year, the show featured five pieces, all choreographed by guest artists from various dance companies. Each piece had a personality and style of its own, leading the dancers to choose their favorite pieces to perform.
“The gala has showed me ways of moving that I never thought I could do, especially the Petronio piece,” said Julie DeGregorio, who is the senior vice president of the Mason Dance Company and performed in three of the pieces. “I watched the video before we had the audition, and I was like, there’s no way I can move like that. It was something about the slicing through air and release of the neck and head that I fell in love with.”
(Evan Cantwell/Creative Services)
Though it was the third Gala DeGregorio was performing in, there was no denying how much she gained from the experience.
“It’s professional work instead of student choreographed. So it’s an honor to be chosen to do work by companies. I’ve made a lot of connections through these pieces,” DeGregorio said.
Celine Berthaud, a junior who appeared in three of the pieces, agreed with DeGregorio on the greatly positive impact the Gala has had on her life and career path. Specifically, for the first piece of the show in which all the dancers wore business attire, Berthaud felt that it really pushed her to a new level.
“It’s definitely physical and very much mental. I think I’m still trying to figure out my whole idea of being caged— the feeling of wanting to jump off a six story building,” Berthaud said.
(Evan Cantwell/Creative Services)
The piece was a grueling dance about globalization and a feeling of being trapped—a dance in which the performers all had to create a character for themselves to go along with their techniques.
This, combined with two other very different pieces, made the performance a diverse experience for Berthaud. Another piece Berthaud performed in, choreographed by Mason alumni William Smith III, was instead very light- hearted, contrasting her other pieces.
“It was very much about being together and dancing as a team. The movement was much more of a flow,” Berthaud said.
Dance, like any skill, is a growing process.
“I came to this program with a lot less training than everyone here,” said Janine Baumgardner, a senior in the Mason Dance Company. “The dancers in the Gala are mostly juniors and seniors because you come in without a lot of the training this wonderful program offers.”
(Evan Cantwell/Creative Services)
The Gala ended with an upbeat dance, titled “New Second Line,” that seemed more like a party than the pieces prior to it.
“It’s based on the New Orleans tradition of second lining, which means in the procession, when the back band is playing, random people can come join in the procession and start dancing, like a big communal celebration of life and death,” Baumgardner said.
Each piece had its own challenges, both presenting a quality show to the audience, as well as a learning experience for the performers.
“It definitely tests your endurance and is hard to get through. We’re literally offstage in the wings yelling to keep each other going—shouting and clapping. You really need it. You really need the smiles and eye contact you give the other dancers to keep you going,” Baumgardner said.
The Gala teaches the dancers what they need to succeed in a world as artistically competitive as ours.
“We’re dancers,” Baumgardner said the day before the premiere show, with in icepack pressed against her leg. “We know how to get back up.”
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