By Teagan Durkin || Staff Writer
If you were lucky, the weekend before spring break you witnessed Cristina Conde’s The Awakening, an independent student project choreographed, directed, and performed all by Conde. To understand more about the creative process, Conde was interviewed regarding the challenges and rewards within such expressive work.
According to Conde, the most challenging aspect in choreographing a 30 minute piece was the precise arrangement of songs, costumes, and sites throughout the performance. Although Conde had an initial vision of what the piece would look like, inspiration spontaneously struck and resulted in choreographing bits and pieces of different songs. Though the beauty of such fluid choreography came through in the end, Conde stated this occasionally resulted in feeling “stuck and overwhelmed by it all.”
Conde expressed a desire for the audience to feel “the community, struggle, and love that women experience” through the performance, as well as how the “cycles of womanhood are very much connected to our ancient goddesses and planetary influences.” Throughout The Awakening, Conde referenced several mythical figures in both dance and song choice. Another unique aspect of The Awakening was the movement between several different sites around the Winter Visual Arts Center. Although most of the performance took place inside, ushers moved the audience outside to witness the dancers slowly articulating down the ramp. On a parting note, Conde hopes that The Awakening allowed the audience to “embrace and tap into” divine feminine energy “in order to foster love and community healing in our patriarchal society.”
Moving forward, Conde intends to pursue dance as a therapeutic healing tool to encourage confidence and comfort within others.
Freshman Teagan Durkin is a Staff Writer. Her email is tdurkin@fandm.edu.