“Front & Center,” a monthly performance event by and for kids, is nothing new to ARTS/West. First staged in 1997, the program has had its home at the arts center since 2003; and as our blogspot (www.artswest.blogspot.com) has only existed since 2006, that makes it older than recorded history!
All knee slapping aside, though, the Front & Center event that took place on Saturday February 9 was a fun and fresh exhibition of the creative energies and inspiring discipline of our region’s youth today. For those who don’t know, the event is typically divided into two sections: roughly a half hour of scheduled performance, followed by a half hour of open stage time for students in the audience. For the first portion this time around, piano instructor and Front & Center host Patricia Lachman worked alongside Chelsea Goettge, composition teacher at Factory Street Studio, to help create nine collaborations between student pianists and young Factory Street dancers. The former deftly recited pieces of all styles and ranges—from Smetana to Joplin and onward to more contemporary compositions—while the latter displayed their own choreographed and improvised dance routines.
Those with experience in dance will be impressed to learn that not only were these routines arranged in just three weeks, but that they also never failed to display the students’ understanding of communication through movement, in both its most subtle and most expressive forms. Ellie Andrews, faculty at Factory Street and proud instructor of many of the featured dancers, admits that encouraging students to develop this understanding is one of her main focuses while teaching. “We ask our students to watch each other’s movement, and to talk about it in terms of rhythm, and quality, etc., rather than just narrative,” she stated. The subsequent ability to be both creative and articulate is evident throughout the students’ choreography: from the lilting, wavelike motions set to the piece “Sky Blue Boat” to the snappy and exaggerated choreography to “Maple Leaf Rag” (along with an appropriate nod to the Charleston), they repeatedly found ways to recreate and rearticulate the moods set by the music.
Of course, these themes were consistently amplified by able cooperation and communication between musicians and dancers; and this is what gave this Front & Center event a special difference with regard to past performances. While previously the event has staged sets by many shades of regional musicians—such as the Burhans and the Local Girls—last Saturday it featured a performance that was wholly interdisciplinary, as it placed an equal focus on both music and dance. According to Lachman–whose broad intention for the event is to provide her students with opportunities to learn from experienced musicians and perform in a casual setting—the collaborative Front & Center is important because it gives students of piano, “which is usually a solitary instrument, the chance to begin thinking as a member of an ensemble.” The challenge is that the ensemble is made up not only of musicians or of dancers, but both; and that these two different kinds of artists must learn to combine their distinct modes of communication to express a single idea.
The performance recalls a past Front & Center event during which workshop leader Dan Dennis invited audience members to the stage to join him in group eurhythmics. Both events not only provided entertainment to those present, but also became illustrations of the airtight codependence between music and dance–a notion that Lachman refers to as the “organic connection” between rhythm and movement.
The event closed with five solo performances on an open stage, maintaining the interdisciplinary theme with performances by both dancers and musicians.
Lachman believes that the Athens community contains a wealth of musical talent and is optimistic about the future of Front & Center. She also aspires to steer some of the future performances again toward the realm of interdisciplinary experience. Front & Center takes place at ARTS/West from noon to 1:00 pm on the second Saturday of every month. It is free and open to all ages and all young musicians are invited to perform during the open stage.
Athens Community Critical "I" 