Hoskins' Piece Bound for D.C. Festival

Author: Laura Rockefeller

Every year colleges from nine regions across the country send their most talented dancers and choreographers to the American College Dance Festival (ACDF). The culmination of this festival, for the lucky few groups selected by adjudicators, is an invitation to perform at the Terrace Theater of the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., for a gala concert. A piece choreographed by Middlebury College student Sean Hoskins '02 was chosen to be presented at this year's concert in May.

Despite the fact that Middlebury has a distinguished history with the ACDF, having sent three dances to the Kennedy Center in the last six years, Hoskins said that he is still getting used to the idea of taking the piece he choreographed to Washington in two months. "I go from being really excited about it and wanting to revel in the prospect, to being surprised at how blown up it is," he explained. He was startled to see his name up on the welcome page of the College Web site, and to hear that a meeting for The Friends of Middlebury College, an alumni group, might be planned around the Kennedy Center presentation of his dance.

At the moment, Hoskins' immediate work at Middlebury is much more real to him. He has been working on his independent project since the fall semester. When he began choreographing "So We Pivot," it was not with the specific intention of taking it to ACDF. He choreographed the piece for one of Dance Artist-in-Residence Amy Chevasse's advanced dance classes. The guidelines were to create a piece involving three to five people without dancing yourself. Although students were told that there would be three showings and that the dances performed in the final fall concert would be eligible for ACDF, Hoskins did not expect his piece to be among those chosen.

For Hoskins, the process of choreography began with a mental image rather than with a specific idea or piece of music. In choreographing "So We Pivot," Hoskins explained that he "started with images of where [he] wanted to move bodies in space." As he watched the piece come to life, he developed more interest in the way that people's relations to each other changed as they grew closer together or farther apart.

"I am more concerned with the 'how' and 'when,'" Hoskins said, "rather than the 'what' when I am choreographing a piece." He explained that he still feels very new to choreography and he wanted to focus specifically on the images that he was creating.

Music did become important in the process of creation once rehearsals began. After listening to many different pieces and styles of music, Hoskins selected a quick and rhythmic piece of prepared piano music. This style of music, developed by pianist John Cage, is created by placing odds-and-ends like rubber bands and screws in between the piano keys. This creates a much more percussive and frantic sound from the instrument.

It was this type of rapid rhythm that Hoskins had wanted to find for his piece. After taking a high-energy class in a dance festival at Bates College, he became fascinated by speedy, frenzied music like techno. He believes that this, coupled with his very busy schedule, influenced the fast-paced choreography of his piece.

Hoskins brought a specific vision and movements into the rehearsals, but he stated that the piece underwent some natural alterations during the rehearsal process. After presenting a phrase, he and his dancers would work with it and manipulate it until the phrase fit the rhythm and the look that he wanted. The showings also caused him to make alterations. He explained that he never presented the dance in quite the same way. "In order for there to be a development, I like to change something in the piece each time around," he explained.

One important part of his process was finding one phrase that he could repeat in the dance. "Modern dance tends to be very ethereal," he said. "When people see modern dance they tend to be looking for a storyline like one that would be found in theater or even ballet, but modern is more abstract." Because of this, he explained, he likes to find some repetition in the piece to serve as a means of grounding the audience in the world of the dance.

The final outcome of this process was that "So We Pivot" was one of two pieces that were sent to the ACDF by Middlebury College. Although Hoskins claimed that he thinks of himself more as a performer than as a choreographer, he said that this vote of confidence in his creative abilities has made him want to continue in choreography.

Students at Middlebury will get an opportunity to see his work in late April, before it is taken to the Kennedy Center, when Hoskins presents the three pieces that make up his independent project. The concert will also include choreoraphy by Chavasse and Visiting Assistant Professor in Dance Peter Schmitz.