The cooperative efforts between Cal State University Long Beach dance department and the Bob Cole Conservatory of music will be performed at the Carpenter center this weekend.
The event titled Fusion: A Performance of Dance and Live Orchestra was first brought to CSULB in 2010. Sophie Monat, the concert director, said that collaborative efforts such as this are difficult to plan because they take tremendous amounts of organization between departments and coordination of concert dates and space availability with the Carpenter Center.
The concert was choreographed by CSULB dance faculty members Rebecca Bryant, Keith Johnson, Lorin Johnson, Rebecca Lemme and Sophie Monat. The orchestra will be conducted by Johannes Müller-Stosch.
“The thing is, it is such a wonderful experience for both dancers and the audience because it’s all happening in the moment,” Monat said. “There’s always an added sort of excitement, witnessing something in the moment like this.”
Monat said that because of the large amount of positive feedback from audience members and performers, the fine arts department knew it wanted to do a fusion concert every few years. She said the original one took two years to plan. This year, choreographers selected music in the summer so that the musicians had enough time to prepare the pieces. Both the dance department and the Bob Cole Conservatory of music have been preparing all semester.
Fusion will encompass a wide range of dance and music styles. The five individual performances will range from modern dance to an all-male quartet.
The show starter, Set-up, choreographed by Bryant, is a contemporary dance to a raucous composition by Julia Wolfe. Bryant used video technology to alter traditional performance settings.
Monat choreographed a contemporary ballet piece, Lift, is described in the press release as a pure movement piece inspired by the music, “Short Ride in a Fast Machine,” by John Adam.
“I wanted to take advantage of the live music and do something that used a full orchestra,” Monat said.
According to the press release, the show will close with Lemme’s Disarm, a reaction to violence resulting from the absence of conversation, compassion and understanding, set to John Adam’s “Harmonielehre.”
Fusion will be running Friday at 8 p.m. and Saturday at 8 p.m. Tickets are $25 for general admission and $20 for students and seniors.