You might think it would take a long time to watch a performance featuring 60 different dances.
The reality, however, is it will take just an hour.
A performance of 60X60, performed by dance composition students at Central Michigan University, will have 60 dance pieces, each one minute (60 seconds) long. The performance is at 2 p.m. Sunday in the Moore Hall Kiva at CMU; doors open at 1:30 p.m. Admission is free.
60X60 in an international program that was developed in 2003 by Robert Voisey in New York City.
CMU faculty members Jay Batzner (music) and Heather Trommer-Beardslee (dance) collaborated to bring the project to CMU. The music chosen is part of the 60X60 offerings; the dances were choreographed by students in Trommer-Beardslee’s dance composition class.
“It was originally done as a music concert, or a listening experience might be the best way to describe it, where different composers would submit music to him (Voisey), always in one-minute segments, and he would create a track of 60 one-minute pieces of music.... At first, it was definitely an auditory experience,” Trommer-Beardslee said of 60X60’s beginnings nearly 10 years ago. “Then he added dance. So not only are audience members hearing these 60 one-minute pieces, but they’re also seeing it, so it’s become a visual experience, where audience members are seeing 60 one-minute dances.”
With the performance, CMU is now on the 60X60 map. “These performances are happening worldwide and now one of them is happening here at Central Michigan University,” she said.
Batzner, a professor in the school of music at CMU, approached Trommer-Beardslee with the idea for a local concert. “He has been a composer for one of these performances before and he approached me about putting one of these on at CMU. I was immediately intrigued by the idea,” Trommer-Beardslee said.
“I thought what better way to teach dance composition than to give them an actual project where an audience will witness their finished works. So my dance composition students have created 60 one-minute dances.
“They are performing it and they choreographed it. So Jay and I organized this project, but it is definitely the work of CMU’s dance composition students. They own it. It’s their performance.”
The performance is comprised of solos, duets and ensemble work. Each of the students performs in four to eight dance pieces.
“It’s not only a lot to learn, it’s a lot to choreograph,” Trommer-Beardslee said. “Not only are they performing them, they created them from concept – creating the concept and deciding what the intent is going to be and creating the movement. And they went through a pretty intense editing process.... We critiqued them as a class, we talked about the challenges, what was effective, what wasn’t effective, and how it worked as a whole, how the intent came across to the audience.”
She said she hopes her students enjoyed the project, but it was challenging for them.
“There were definitely hard moments,” Trommer-Beardslee said, “It was a pretty entrenched process, but now that they are seeing the final product, it is my hope that not only are they proud of themselves, as they should be, but they learned about themselves and about the choreographic process and enjoyed it.”