A Dance, A Story, Or Both

By Tanjua Damon

Reed Intermediate School students experienced a cultural arts event March 28 that depicted stories as dances, and dances as stories. It was called storeography.

Adam Battelstein and Friends portrayed dance performances for the students and then had them describe or tell the plot of what they saw happening on stage. Emily Kent and John Fitterer joined Mr Battelstein on stage during the performances. Mr Battelstein performs modern dance and improvisation.

“Inside a story you find a dance,” Ms Battelstein said. “And inside a dance is a story.”

The students were entertained with stories entitled, “After Hours,” “Figure Stick,” and “Suit Case Man.” Once the dancers completed a performance they would ask the students who was in the dance, what was taking place, and how was it happening. For example, the student’s feedback on the “After Hours” dance was that it could have been two brothers or two friends having a disagreement because one wanted to dance and the other did not, but once the one friend pestered the other friend enough they both danced. The students explained that the plot took place at night because the characters were in pajamas and the title of the performance indicates it happens at night.

The guest performers also had the students create their own story. The students created a dance that had a woman in Antarctica fighting the wind as well as penguins trying to get Skittles out of her pockets. She also had to fight man-eating seals and survive a snow and ice avalanche only in the end to be eaten by the seals.

“Think a little bit about the who, what, when, and where,” Mr Battelstein said. “If you look for them they are in there.”

“The imagination is a good tool to use when watching art,” Mr Fitterer added.

Some of the students questioned what was happening during the dances/stories, but Mr Battelstein and his friends answered the student’s questions with another question to get them to be able to create in their own minds what was taking place, like interpreting a painting.

“Sometimes when you don’t know what is going on you have to use your imagination,” he said. “You have to look at the clues more closely. Why is a question you can be asking inside your head. It’s a question for you to answer.

“Dance isn’t like a story where it tells you everything,” Mr Battelstein added. “Sometimes you just have to sit with the image you see. You have to do the work on the things inside your own imagination. It’s a mystery. You have to solve it.”

The Reed Intermediate School Parent Teacher Association sponsored Adam Battelstein and Friends.