Devils En Pointe and Embodiment are collaborating to put on "Liminal" on Apr. 12. Ahead of this members of both clubs' leadership sat down for an interview with the Duke Chronicle to talk about their clubs and collaboration.
The Chronicle (TC): Tell me a little bit about Devils En Pointe. What's the story behind the club? What do you do and how does Devils En Pointe you fit in the context of other campus ballet offerings?
Kayla Lihardo (KL): Devils En Pointe is Duke's student-run classical and contemporary ballet company. It's an amazing place for people to come together and keep working on the ballet that they've grown to love over the years and to share their passion with other dancers and other members of the community. There are also amazing ballet courses offered by the dance department with Professor Iyun Harrison, and taking classes from both the dance department and from Devils En Pointe is a great way to keep dance in our lives.
Shelly Han (SH): Kayla summed it up really well, but I want to add that it's really cool to have Devils En Pointe in addition to the dance department courses, because a lot of the students in Devils En Pointe are actually not dance majors. And Devils En Pointe is a really great way for students that have a hobby that they might not want to take a class for to keep dancing at Duke.
TC: In terms of membership, is Devils En Pointe mostly people who dance ballet before coming to Duke, or is it more of a mix of people who got into ballet at Duke and people who have been dancing ballet for longer?
KL: It is mostly people who have trained before coming to Duke. There is a lot of training that people must go through when they're younger, and things like dancing on point take years of hard work [to learn]. So we get to continue the training that people started before college and then bring it into a more community-based ballet format.
SH: To add on to that, we don't require the dancers to have a lot of point experience. We are called Devils En Pointe, but like Kayla said, we are a ballet and contemporary dance company. So, for example, even in Nutcracker, our yearly Fall Semester showcase, we'll have pieces that are on pointe, but also pieces that are on flat, which means they use the regular ballet technique shoes. And then in the spring, we have a lot of student choreographed pieces that may or may not be on pointe. So there's a good variety in the terms of the kind of dancing we do.
TC: Can you tell me a little bit about Embodiment. How does it fit into the wider campus dance scene? What does it look like to be in Embodiment?
Caroline Brekke (CB): Embodiment is Duke's contemporary and improvisational group. It's separate from other groups on campus because it's less focused on showcases and more focused on community building and being in the studio space and being in process and connecting to each other. For example, during fall semester, we do one performance at Fall case, which is when all the dance groups perform to introduce themselves to incoming freshmen. But other than that, we don't really perform at all in the fall semester, and we only perform once in the spring, because we have a large emphasis on creating community within the studio space.
Also [we’re] distinct because while there is another wonderful contemporary dance group on campus called Momentum, that is a female group, whereas Embodiment is open to all genders. [Embodiment’s] a lot of fun. We have dancers from more competition style dance [backgrounds], but also a lot of dancers who went to performing arts schools or who had more of a concert based training. So, it's really a mix of a lot of different things.
Lindsey Brewster (LB): Just to add on to that a little bit, the key idea is that we really focus on the process of things. And while we do have a wide variety of dancers that come in, I think we stray away from more competition-like and glam pieces and look more into college style dance and taking it back and taking it back and looking at the process and building connection through pieces. And also, we focus a lot on improv, which is another key part of our group
TC: What was the inspiration behind collaborating together? How did your groups decide to work together? What's that process been like?
CB: I feel like I could probably speak on this, because I'm a member of both Devils En Pointe and Embodiment. Originally, we were both slotted to share a concert with a [third] dance group, but we decided that since there are a lot of other members like me who are in both groups, for convenience’s sake and also [because] both of our groups focus on more concert based performances, that it would just be the best for us to get to work with each other. There’s at least five other crossover members between Embodiment and Devils En Pointe, and so we already had a lot of connection anyways, so working together was obvious.
KL: I'm also a member of both groups, and I find the dialog between them really engaging and interesting. I don't think my ballet or my contemporary would be the same without the skills I've learned from the other style of dance, and it's just so fulfilling and fun to get to share the different types of approaches and thoughts behind these pieces that we're working on with the members of both companies.
TC: Can you tell me a bit about what your upcoming show is going to look like?
CB: The options that we were given by venues this year were to have two individual showcases on one night, one of them starting at 6pm and one of them starting at 9pm or to perform within the same three hour time slot. Initially, our plan was to do a gradient and a mix between [both groups.] So, for example, a Devils En Pointe and then an Embodiment piece. But we came to realize that it wouldn't be that easy, especially because we have a lot of other dance groups performing the same night. Also, logistically it's easier to condense the point pieces together just for safety reasons and comfort reasons. I have personal experience with having to do a point piece and then taking your shoes off and doing contemporary work, and then 15 minutes later trying to shove them back on. And it's not very comfortable. So [it became] more of a Devils En Pointe introduction to the show and then introduction to more classical works, and then as the showcase progresses, we get into more contemporary works, less works on point and introduce some of the more Embodiment focused pieces.
SH: Our title is “Liminal”, and we're starting off with an excerpt from the classical ballet “Don Quixote.” Kayla was our company director this year, so she did a lot of the arrangement for that. And I'm super excited to see it on stage. But we're going to start with that. It's a 16 minute excerpt or so. And then it'll all be classical ballets, some solos, some potatoes, which is when a guy and a girl dance together as a duet. And then there's also some quarter ballet sections, which is when there are more dancers together on stage in a big group piece. Then we move on to a lot of the Defining pieces movements. And then we slowly fade less pointe work and more contemporary pieces as the show goes on.
KL: All but two of the pieces that you'll be seeing at the showcase are choreographed by students. And for me personally, as much as I love being on the stage, dancing with my fellow dancers and choreographing myself, my favorite moments might be when I'm in the wings and I see or hear people reacting to these pieces that we've been working on for the past semester. Seeing those reactions is so meaningful.
LB: To add on to that, I think it's really great that these two groups specifically get to collaborate, because there is a lot of crossover, and a lot of people who are good friends with both sides who you don't cross over. Getting to stand in the wings or sit in the audience when you know you're not dancing, and watch your friends in a group that you also care about is going to be really great.
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TC: Do any of you have favorite moments so far in this preparation process? And if you had to describe the show to someone who maybe has not seen a lot of dance shows, how would you describe it?
KL: I'll give you two of my favorite moments of this process. One was the first time that Shelly and her dance partner performed a “pas de deux” and you just heard all the dancers who hadn't seen it yet just gasp at their big lifts. And my second favorite moment was in a rehearsal directed by Caroline in which she finalized the ending of her piece and instructed the dancer on the last pose, and you could hear the rest of us in the studio just gasp. And it's those moments that excite me, and I think I would describe the show as a breath of fresh air.
LB: I also have two favorite moments so far. The first was when Embodiment did a full run through of all the pieces. That was the first time that everyone was seeing all the dances from Embodiment choreographers, and the energy in the room was just great. You could tell everyone was really excited and really impressed by all the work of each of the choreographers. And my second favorite moment was when the group piece I’m choreographing was finishing and everyone got to dance full out for the first time.
SH: I really agree with Lindsay. I think my favorite moment would be a lot of the moments where you feel that things are coming together and [that] you're getting closer and closer to like that anticipation for the show. I could feel the room like during our Devils en Point [practice] run and it felt like people were excited. The pieces were getting done. We're going to be on stage [soon]. That kind of excitement, and the group moving forward in a very full way for the show, is one of my favorite moments.
I don't really have a second one, but a lot of times after the semester is over, some of my favorite moments are looking back on the performance and the dress rehearsal on stage. Some of the favorite moments are the interactions I've had with the other dancers, whether I know them or not, off stage in the wings. I've had dancers from other dance groups that I've never seen before, never met before. I see them on stage, and I'm clapping like crazy. I see them off station, and we’re high fiving and hugging, and it's just a lot of really good energy during the shows. I'm really looking forward to that.
CB: Everyone has such amazing answers. I like to book end moments. I think there's just a lot of things that I like, but I [especially] like everyone's first rehearsals, because oftentimes, like, choreographers would just sit down and just try to explain everything that's in their head and everything that they're trying to make. And I know I look crazy when I'm just summarizing everything to everyone, but it's really exciting because a lot of times you haven't heard the idea.
We have choreographic interest forms [where] people give very short blurbs of what their piece is about, and I think watching people really try to verbalize what they're about to make is really exciting. And then throughout the process, connecting the dots and understanding that this is how this is going to happen. And then I would say in general, I think that being in the rehearsal process gets you so much more connected to other members of your group. It’s very much like community building, and we do form a family while getting to the showcase. So by the time you're actually performing, you feel so connected and so cohesive with the people you're dancing with, and it's just really nice to be a part of that community.
Zev van Zanten is a Trinity junior and recess editor of The Chronicle's 120th volume.