Beat Development

"Beat Devolpment"

2007-12-11T08:02:00.000-08:00

I entered Patricia Gallagher Newberry’s classroom a little nervous the first day of class.

Although I’d written news stories over the course of my college career, I knew JRN 421 (“Beat Development”) was going to be different. It was going be tough.

After I chose the Miami “Fine Arts” beat I started to feel a little more confident. After all, I went to Cincinnati’s School for the Creative and Performing Arts for high school. This was my turf! I could handle this.

Well, I had a lot to learn. As I began generating story ideas and contacting potential sources, I realized that succeeding in this course wasn’t going to be a piece of cake.

Between working a 40-hour week and managing other class work, fitting in interviews and writing time became a challenge. I found myself at the mercy of sources’ schedules – which never seemed to fit mine. I motored from Newport, KY to Oxford before work most days, my digital recorder in tow, hoping each time my source wouldn’t stand me up. It didn’t always work out.

Scoring the important interviews did turn out to be the most challenging part of “Beat Development.”

While I may have set up meetings weeks in advance, I definitely spent my fair share of afternoons checking the time on my cell phone, re-checking notes, and never getting the story.

The absolute necessity of having a back-up plan for those situations was the most valuable lesson I learned in this class. I found that when a well-researched, carefully crafted interview goes off without a hitch and leads to a good story, it is the most rewarding experience a writer can have – and blowing a deadline due to poor preparation is the worst.

As a result of taking this class, my interviewing confidence has grown, my organizational skills have increased, and I have learned the value of getting out from behind you desk and hitting the street to get the best news.

--Veronica Strickler
Dec. 11, 2007

Classic Tragedy Captures Modern Issues

2007-12-10T11:12:00.000-08:00

BY VERONICA STRICKLER
SEP. 20, 2007

War. Torture. Intolerance. Love. Terror.

It isn't a breaking news report on the situation in Iraq. It's Euripedes' “The Trojan Women,” part of the Social Justice Series presented by Miami University's School of Fine Arts.

The play, which debuts on Oct. 4 in the Gates-Abegglen Theatre at the Center for Performing Arts, tells the story of four Trojan women after their city has fallen in battle against the Greeks. Surrounded by torture, intolerance and violence, the women are faced with enslavement and death as their families are torn apart.

Such a serious topic, together with a script first produced in 415 B.C., proved daunting for the cast of “Women” – which is completely composed of Miami students.

"I think there was more fear at least starting out -- than anything else," Assistant Director Nicole Wilder said. "Classic texts tend to be a little bit dense. You know, there's a lot of monologues, a lot of narrative. Modern audiences aren't necessarily used to watching that. So the actors are feeling the pressure of how to keep the audience engaged."

Wilder herself edited the script for the Miami production, cutting and interweaving many of the long monologues characteristic of classical plays to seem more like modern realistic dialogue.

"I think you need to keep common sentiment in mind if you're trying to make a point," Wilder said. "I think it's a strategic choice that we made to make it a little more accessible."

William Doan, associate dean of the School of Fine Arts and professor in the Department of Theatre at Miami, is one of many educators trying to impart what they see as the enduring value of classical works upon their students.

"We've started prepping them for ‘Trojan Women’," says Doan, "and started talking about theater and social action, and the difference between theater as art and social drama -- the ways in which people can use theater as a way to interpret what's happening in society. So far I'm impressed not only with the ability but with the willingness of these students to kind of go along for the ride and try this out."

But while Director Bekka Eaton has allowed alterations to the script and let her crew draw on modern influences for inspiration (the costumes in “The Trojan Women” are heavily influenced by the “Star Wars” films), she has striven to maintain the classical spirit of the play.

Eaton brought in language and movement specialists to do intensive workshops with the actors in an effort to help them connect with their roles mentally and physically. Furthermore, the set -- which is meant to resemble harsh, quarried rock -- was deliberately designed to pose a challenge to the cast.

"It's big," Wilder said. "In a play like this we're trying to really get them to connect physically to their body. Otherwise you start memorizing these long monologues and they start coming out sort of robotically. This will help to prevent that. But also, it relates to the hopelessness of the situation that the characters are in right now. It's sort of a metaphor."

Part the reason “The Trojan Women” was selected for production is its relevance to current events. Many elements of the play are echoed in modern headlines every day: the rape and torture of conquered people, the destruction of families, and the inevitable and irrevocable damage to noncombatant victims in the course of war.

While the Miami production is not set specifically in a modern war zone, Wilder said she and Eaton are well aware that it could be.

But that might mean missing a bigger point.

"Most of the production photos that I have seen actually have made it really obvious where they're setting it -- as in Vietnam or in Afghanistan or something like that," Wilder said. "Bekka's real goal was to point out that people continue to not learn from history. That's why this play still needs to be done. So by not situating it specifically in Afghanistan or Iraq I think makes that statement."

James Lentini, dean of Miami's School of Fine Arts, agrees that drawing specific comparisons between modern and ancient events isn't the most important element of this production.

"You wouldn't necessarily connect something so far removed in the timeline of things," says . "How do you make it relevant? Is it important to make it relevant?"

In the end the answer may be no.

"It is about social justice. Whether it's for women or Trojan women or whoever."

Performing Arts Series Production Loses Star

2007-12-04T10:37:00.000-08:00

BY VERONICA STRICKLER
OCT. 2, 2007

Live theater can be incredibly unpredictable -- long before the curtain even rises.

Stacey Keach, veteran television and film actor, has pulled out of his starring role in the touring production of “Top Secret: The Battle for the Pentagon Papers,” which is scheduled to appear in Miami University’s Hall Auditorium Oct. 24.

Students who noticed flyers advertising “Top Secret” might have recognized Keach from his role as warden Henry Pope on the popular FOX drama “Prison Break,” though he is most famous forportraying the title character on the CBS series “Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer”. While no official cast list has been released, John Heard (also of “Prison Break”) has been tapped to take over Keach’s role, according to Miami officials.

Patti Liberatore, director of the Performing Arts Series, said Keach’s decision was partially caused by a looming actors’ strike in Hollywood, though no further explanation could be given. While she admits Keach’s dropping out of the production is inconvenient, Liberatore remains confident that “Top Secret” will be well received.

“He was just a quasi-recognizable name for some people,” Liberatore said. “I don’t know that it was a huge audience draw. I liked the idea that there was a recognizable name in it, but really what attracted me to the project was far more the content of the play and the issues that it takes on.”

What “Top Secret” takes on is the story of one of the most significant U.S. Supreme Court victories in the history of the American press.

The “Pentagon Papers” were commissioned by then-Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara in 1966 to review the history of the U.S.’s involvement in Vietnam. Some sections of the report detailed efforts by the U.S. government to manipulate the media and military information. In 1971, the New York Times was leaked a copy of the “Pentagon Papers” and ran a series of excerpts from the classified document. Shortly after, the Times was hit with a federal injunction forbidding further publication on unprecedented grounds that the papers content posed a threat to national security. Shortly after, the Washington Post acquired a copy, and that is where the play picks up with Ben Bradlee, editor of the Post deliberating over publishing the document, and continues through the trial that ensued.

Given its journalistic, political and historical significance, a Social Justice Series performance of “Top Secret” is far from surprising. For professors seeking to find a fresh way for their students to connect with their curriculum, the play is goldmine.

“A lot of what we do is try and reach the students through their professors,” said David Sheldrick, assistant director of the Performing Arts Series. “A lot of student attendance we’re expecting to be from curricular ties. We’ve been talking with theater professors, journalism professors, poli-sci. We’ve got a couple of connections in there. Some are going to require their classes to attend and that’s really how we try to get the students to attend, and think about activities, and get involved.”

But for people like Liberatore, a former journalism student who is well aware that a growing number of college students get their news from Jon Stewart and not Brian Williams, the hope is that students will want to connect with “Top Secret” for their own benefit.

“What I would really, really hope is that people who are coming to this production are coming with a critical eye thinking, ‘What can I take away from this?’” Liberatore said. “I think theater can transcend any time.”

Sheldrick agrees, and also hopes students and professors will see the production’s relevance to current events.

“The Pentagon Papers, that Vietnam era, and arguably the biggest Supreme Court decision on freedom of the press...But it’s extremely relevant based on what’s going on today,” he said. “That was another key point to us bringing it in. It’s something that can really connect with everything going on right now.”

“When it comes to thinking about a lot of these issues, we’re sort of in a bubble,” Liberatore added. “Until it starts effecting us personally we can sort of live our lives and forget the fact that we’re at war. We might remember it when we go to fill up our gas tank.”

Additionally, issues like government accountability are key to social justice. The theme that ties together several projects from the School of Fine Arts this year.

“I think that politicians at all levels -- federal, state, local, as well as corporate leaders at all levels do look to the arts, not only for the way to answer certain questions but the way we ask the questions,” said William Doan, associate dean of the school. “I think smart and savvy leaders in various kinds of capacities, even if they don’t want to openly admit it, will secretly turn to the arts.”

Liberatore agrees. She believes that her job makes her responsible for presenting Miami’s student body with the type of art that spurs discussion and opens forums for important and controversial issues. That is why she pounced on “Top Secret.”

“I believe that art’s supposed to change your life,” Liberatore said. “Sometimes you have to challenge people. Sometimes you can do things artistically and accomplish things that can’t be accomplished any other way. Maybe seeing something on-stage which is sort of not real makes it easier to think about the real thing that it’s portraying.”

Visual Arts Club Returns

2007-11-30T06:46:00.000-08:00

BY VERONICA STRICKLER
OCT. 9, 2007

Amor vincit omnia.

It means “love conquers all” -- and it’s not just the title of the classic Vermeer painting, it is a personal maxim for the few devoted students and faculty members who are spearheading a resurgence of the Miami University Visual Arts Club.

After about 10 years of inactivity, the Visual Arts Club is back from the dead. It has been an uphill battle since resuming regular meetings last year, but the group is finally gaining steam. With plans for several major on campus events, upcoming out-of-state trips, and plans to reach out to students of all disciplines in place the Visual Arts Club seems poised for a comeback.

Faculty advisor and Miami graduate Matthew Litteken has been instrumental in breathing new life into the organization he loved as a student. Despite the difficulties of reinvigorating and reinventing the group, his enthusiasm for the cause remains unwavering.

“I think one of the things that is important with the Visual Arts Club is that there was a period where it was really strong here years back,” Litteken said. “And then 10 years prior to last year it just kind of fizzled out. So, last year students were asking about it. Last year was the inaugural re-vamping or re-surfacing of the Visual Arts Club. It was a rocky year. So, once we figured that out it became too late for us to really dive in to things. So, we are hitting it pretty hard at the beginning of this semester.”

The club’s many plans for the semester include a contest to design a t-shirt logo for the VAC, with the prize is a $50 gift certificate to Bill’s Art Store for the winning design, the launching of a monthly art “zine” which would be open to submissions of visual work from students of all disciplines; trips to an array of Cincinnati art galleries; and the creation of a club web site linked to the Art Department home page, Litteken and the club officers are taking promotion and growth of the club to heart.

“Right now, we don’t have too much attendance at meetings,” said Visual Arts Club President Andrea Lohse, “but there are a lot of people interested in events that we’re planning - so that’s really important for us. Just advertising and getting people involved.”

One on-campus event for which Lohse anticipates great student interest is this month’s VAC-sponsored visit of the Drive-By Press. Formed by artists Gregory Nanney and Joseph Velasquez, Drive-By Press tours the country giving lectures and demonstrations on print making, etching and lithography – all out of the back of a van. The spontaneous nature of the group seems perfectly suited to college students looking for new outlets for their creativity.

“They’ll probably park in one of the parking lots in the Shriver [Center] area and just do prints out of the back of their van,” Lohse said. “It’ll be a great learning experience for people who haven’t done printing things, and it’ll be great to see because I think it might attract other students from outside art majors. It’ll be good to get our name out there.”

VAC also anticipates a strong response to its Nov. 2 trip to Chicago. Though there is only a tentative itinerary in place, main purpose of the trip is to visit the 14th annual international exposition of Sculpture Objects & Functional Art ( “SOFA”) at Chicago’s Navy Pier Festival Hall, as well the 2007 Graduate Student Portfolio Days seminar at the Art Institute of Chicago.

While the trip is geared toward art majors, it is open to all, Lohse said.

“We’ve got some people from the music department, the architecture department, 2-D students, 3-D students, some graduate students and some undergrads all going,” Lohse said. “So it’s really interdisciplinary within the school. It’ll be really nice to have that diversity.”

The emphasis on getting students from different disciplines involved in activities is an integral part of the Visual Arts Club’s mission statement.

“I really like seeing people getting involved in the arts,” Lohse said. “It’s really cool that we stared this project up. It’s bringing so many opportunities to students in the Art Department and School of Fine Arts.”
For many students the appeal of the Visual Arts Club might not be lofty aesthetic dreams or high-brow exhibitions. Lohse believes it can be explained in two simple words: cabin fever.

“ It’s nice that we can get funding from Miami to go on these trips to Chicago and to the SOFA exhibition, and go to Cincinnati and do the galleries and Art Museum,” she said. “Oxford is so small, there really isn’t much here. It’s nice to be able to have opportunities outside of campus and make people aware of what’s going on. You need that outside influence sometimes.”

French Film Series Opens Window to the World

2007-11-29T06:55:00.000-08:00

BY VERONICA STRICKLER
NOV. 6, 2007

See the world! No passports, no security checks and no immunizations required. Sound too good to be true? It’s not.

This is the opportunity the French Film Series gives students and professors alike - and they don’t even have to leave Oxford.

Every Tuesday evening, Elizabeth Hodges alternately transforms humble old room 40 of Irvin Hall into a lavish cocktail party, a war zone, a picturesque countryside and a slew of other unique cinematic destinations with films in her French course “FRE366: Realism and its Discontents.” All are welcome.

The course itself is designed not only to provide French students with a comprehensive overview of the works of the most respected French filmmakers in history, but also to encourage in-depth analysis of visual technique, style, metaphors and the dynamic between realism and artificiality in film.

The films featured in the course include Jean Renoir’s “The Rules of the Game,” Jean-Luc Godard’s “Contempt,” and the next film scheduled for screening, Mattieu Kassovitz’s “Hate.” These films tackle a variety of issues ranging from racism, sexism, classism and murder to simple aesthetics. While Hodges does not dismiss the significance of such weighty themes, her main concern lies elsewhere.
“I thought maybe I should shift the course less to think about cinema and how it engages with cultural discourse and think this time about it’s realism -- the inherent realism of the photographic image and yet the inherent artifice of the moving image,” Hodges said.

Students in her class watch the films in their entirety, then study them intensively in class sessions -- often scrutinizing single frames for an entire class period analyzing visual queues. But Hodges insists one need not be a French major or film studies minor to find something worth taking away in these films.

“In a world that’s global -- where at the touch of a keypad you can imagine yourself in Paris even if you aren’t actually in Paris -- to be able to see the cultural products produced in the First, Second and Third World is essential,” Hodges said, “especially if we’re going to be a part of the informed global community.”

David Schloss, a Miami English professor with a concentration in film studies, agrees, citing the films as a unique opportunity for students to gain a fresh perspective on the world, especially if they can’t afford to study in Luxembourg.

“Every one of these films are about a world different than suburban Ohio in one form or another,” Schloss said. “They are about different ways of life, and I think are really mind-opening.”

In the past, that “mind-opening” quality has come under fire. While professors like Hodges and Schloss maintain that the issues dealt with in the films presented by the Department of French and Italian are vital to the human experience and intrical to higher education, there are those who would disagree.

In 2003, the French Department and Journalism Program clashed over a screening of the Oscar-nominated film “Ridicule” and a Miami Student opinion piece that followed. The piece, by former Student columnist Aaron Sanders, charged that students in the course for which the film was screened were upset by certain graphic images in the film. In the following weeks, complaints were lodged against Sanders, who was subsequently fired by the Student, and the national media picked up the story.

To this day, French professors like Hodges still harbor tender feelings over the incident.

“It was a very disruptive moment for us. We were absolutely within our rights,” Hodges said. “He was advocating a political position and a very conservative take on something he knew nothing about. If he had actually seen the film and been willing to discuss it with any of us then I think it would have been a very different kind of article.”

“Ridicule” is not part of the current film series, which has received no negative feedback from students or faculty.

Through it all, Hodges, and her colleague Paul Sandro (who teaches the upper-level answer to Hodges’s course: FRE460/560: French Cinema at Work and Play) remain positive about French cinema’s power to expand people’s emotional horizons, and encourage students and professors of all disciplines to share their passion.

“It’s a real nice thing to have more people than are just in the class come to these things,” Sandro said. “They can stick around and talk and form a little community.”

Schloss believes that sense of community can extend far beyond the walls of any Oxford classroom, and may benefit Miami students more than any traditional lecture ever could.

“If you’re having to spend time with life problems of people very different than you it might open up some kind of sense of expansiveness, compassion or at least understanding and recognition rather than outright ignoring or avoiding and resisting,” he said. “An education is a hell of a lot more than just classroom -- or could be.”

Miami Musicology Professor 's Favorite Melody is Kindness

2007-11-28T07:11:00.000-08:00

BY VERONICA STRICKLER
NOV. 20, 2007

Music fills the air. Concert posters devour the wall space. Books, magazines and scribbled notes cover every available surface in the room. Ominous stacks of large books loom higher and higher the closer they get to the desk.

Despite the potential avalanche, Tammy Kernodle sits calmly in front of her computer, typing with a dexterity that could put a court reporter to shame.

It would be next to impossible to guess what she is working on. After 10 years of teaching at Miami, Kernodle refuses to slow down. In addition to her duties as an Associate Professor of Musicology and head of the Miami chapter of the International Association for Jazz Education, Kernodle also frequently lectures at universities across the country on black world and women’s studies. She is also currently engaged in two major literary projects, one being a four-volume “Encyclopedia of African American Music.” The other is a revision of the “New Grove Dictionary of American Music” for which she is editing entries on African-American music.

It would be enough to make Wonder Woman swoon. But not Kernodle. No matter how heavy the work load, she manages to keep her heart light. She laughs when asked about her myriad of endeavors and says, “You asked about one? I’m talking about 400 or 500!”

Sure, she laughs, but she isn’t far off. It isn’t just scholarly work that keeps Kernodle busy. When she isn’t busy doing research in the library, or teaching classes on the history of jazz, she’s immersed in a heart-to-heart counseling session with a student, jamming with an in-prompt-to jazz ensemble on campus, or handling any number of other outside-of-class priorities.

“Her great value is not only what she does in a formal setting – teaching – but also the informal setting, in casual meetings with students,” said Richard Green, chair of Miami’s Department of Music. “[Some] students feel very close to her because of her perspective, which makes her a valuable resource for advice in crisis intervention and assistance. She handles that very well. She has very good sense of how to help students.”

For Kernodle, the personal interaction with students is one of the most fulfilling parts of the job.

“I aspire to be not just an instructor, but a friend, and confidant to my students,” she said. “I let them know that I have an open door policy and what is said in my office, stays in my office. I’m invested in their dreams and I have a real desire for all of my students to reach their goals.”

Kernodle’s passion for helping students fulfill their dreams may stem from her own upbringing by strong female role models. She cites her maternal grandmother and godmother as the guiding lights in her early life. “Both really accepted me for me and both were very instrumental in instilling me the value of hard work and getting an education,” she said. “They really guided me into womanhood.”

Kernodle’s grandmother also played a large part in developing her passion for music. She, along with many of Kernodle’s aunts, uncles, cousins and brothers, played the piano. Naturally, young Tammy learned to play as well.
But while music was always important to Kernodle, she would not discover her true muse – jazz -- until later in life.

Since her love affair with the art form began, Kernodle has devoted much of her scholarly work and personal life to studying and playing jazz. She served as the Scholar in Residence for the Women in Jazz Initiative at the American Jazz Museum in Kansas City, MO., and wrote her first book on jazz pianist and composer Mary Lou Williams, entitled “Soul on Soul: The Life and Music of Mary Lou Williams.”

“The soulfulness and raw emotion of the music [is what draws me to jazz],” said Kernodle. “It’s just something about the music that speaks to my soul; it just reflects the essence of who I am…Beyond the music itself, the stories of the people who played the music inspire and intrigue me.”

Though she is no longer affiliated with the American Jazz Museum, Kernodle continues to promote the preservation and spread of jazz culture in her work at Miami. She is spearheading efforts to launch new classes that focus on jazz theory, composition and performance.

“Right now you can’t study jazz saxophone here, you can’t study jazz guitar. The history side of it is just one side,” said Kernodle, although she would also like to see jazz history courses diversified as well. “I would love to see some upper level courses that pull out specific periods and genres of jazz and deal with them more in-depth. [I think] that would be something that could really be implemented probably in the next three to five years.”
But while jazz is Kernodle’s musical muse, teaching has always been her life’s passion. She knew at a very young age that she wanted to teach.

“I use to play school with my younger brothers and would always be the teacher,” said Kernodle. “It sounds nerdy, but I love the classroom. I love for students to challenge themselves, to think out of the box, to push beyond their obvious abilities.”

One needs only to speak with her colleagues to know that Kernodle’s early instincts steered her right.

“She is a terrific teacher and a fantastic colleague,” said Thomas Garcia, a fellow jazz musician and Department of Music colleague. “She has been a strong force in the department, and has brought new thinking to the teaching of music history and music in its cultural context… She is a professor who truly cares.”

That care is evident in all Kernodle does. In her teaching, writing and simple conversation she shows a genuine interest in others and a unique, straightforward brand of honesty. While she will always tell you exactly how she feels, Kernodle would rather hear what you have to say. It is perhaps this quality-- more than her keen intellect and winning sense of humor – that is the reason for her success.

“An older woman once told me—give many your ear and few your voice,” said Kernodle. “I’ve held on to that and have tried to live by that principle. So I choose my responses carefully and I focus on listening rather than talking all the time. So people get the impression that I’m moody, distant and/or arrogant, but I’m really just trying to live a quiet but honest life.”

Dance Theatre Winter Concert is a Labor of Love

2007-11-27T07:24:00.000-08:00

BY VERONICA STRICKLER
NOV. 27, 2007

Movement. Emotion. Creativity.

This is what the Dance Theatre of Miami University promises to deliver at its Winter Concert early next month.

The company, which began meeting in 1933, has regularly produced one concert per semester with the intention of showcasing diverse styles of dance and music, and providing a dance outlet to students of all majors.

If you think dance is just for people who like obscure classical music and men in tights – you’ve probably never seen Miami’s Dance Theatre.

“The music in this concert is really amazing and familiar too,” said Dance Theatre President Laura Dattilo.
It’s true. Past Dance Theatre concerts have featured music from modern bands like The Postal Service and selections from the “Requiem for a Dream” soundtrack. This year’s Winter Concert will feature native Brazilian music, and selections from the soundtracks to the films “Amelie,” “Man on Fire,” and “Pan’s Labyrinth.”

The concert will feature original dances by eight different choreographers – some students, some professionals, and some alumni of the club. Each dance is unique in style, theme, set and feel – a fact Dance Theatre Director and Miami dance professor Lana Kay Rosenberg is very proud of.

“Our theme is to not have a theme,” said Rosenberg. “We try to be as eclectic as possible.”

Dattilo agrees. “There is something that everyone can connect with or appreciate in this concert,” she said. “We have so many amazing dancers this year. The talent alone is going to make this concert awesome.”

But it isn’t just the wide range of styles and themes that make this concert special – it’s the passion and devotion of the individuals involved.

“It is rewarding to see that a group of students can put together as professional a show as we do,” said Steph Ridenour, who both performs in and manages publicity for Dance Theatre. “Besides all the school work and reasons as to why we attend Miami, we are still so devoted to Dance Theatre and give up sleep, grades and anything to make this concert a success.”

For many of the troupe’s performers, success can be measured in how well they connect with the audience. Many students who now dance in the company joined because they were so impressed by past Dance Theatre performances. Dattilo, a senior, fell in love with the company after seeing one of its concerts during her freshman year at Miami.

“It was the first time that a stage production, without actual actors, brought tears to my eyes,” said Dattilo. “I remember exactly seeing the one dancer on stage and the look on her face was so hypnotizing… She was dancing to a song from ‘Requiem for a Dream’ and she came out of a turn and just stood there, still, facing the audience. She was breathing so heavily and the look on her face. You just had to see it. I wanted so much to be a part of it and make other people feel the way I felt.”

For Rosenberg, who handles everything from the courting of guest choreographers to the hand-dyeing of costume pieces, the payoff comes both in the process and the product. Despite difficulties with finding people to run the sound board for the production and overseeing the construction of set pieces (which can be as simple as a park bench or as difficult as an enormous box with platform space for multiple dancers), Rosenberg’s sense of satisfaction with her work keeps her going.

“It’s a phenomenally rewarding experience, but it’s also a very frustrating and time-consuming experience,” said Rosenberg. “When you sit back and get into the theatre and see the dances -- the students are excited and the choreographers are excited – it’s a marvelous feeling…That’s why you do it!”

For Dattilo, Dance Theatre is more than just a club. It provides an emotional outlet and an opportunity to translate her feelings into art. Her piece in last semester’s concert was inspired by the death of close friend in a car accident. That work moved many audience members to tears. Her Winter Concert piece was inspired by her brother’s struggle to overcome depression.
For Dattilo, dance is therapy.

“It has saved my sanity quite a few times,” said Dattilo. “My mom always told me that dancing is something nobody can take away from me. No one will be able to stop me from letting my emotions out when I dance, whether it’s on stage, in my room, or down the aisle at Giant Eagle.”

Ridenour hopes the Winter Concert will be as enriching for audience members as it is for her and the rest of the company. “Dance is my way of saying thanks and showing how much emotion can come from one simple thing,” she said. “I hope I can evoke emotion in an audience member while I dance to show how much emotions can change your perspective in life."