A new, experimental movement performance entitled “Wrappers” strives to address the dilemma of style versus substance with the question “are you the product or the package?”
This Friday, Bernier Dance, a Connecticut-based dance company, will host a three-hour improvisational movement workshop for members of the Yale community, followed by the company’s “Wrappers” performances incorporating workshop participants.
The company originally contacted the Off-Broadway Theater, which in turn contacted the Alliance for Dance at Yale, a student group which served as the liaison between Bernier Dance and students.
“ADAY’s primary purposes are to make the dance community cohesive and larger than just Yale,” ADAY head Robin Garner ’06 said. “So we try to bring in people outside of Yale to keep the dance community fresh.”
The workshop will focus on teaching spontaneous and creative movement through exercises and problem-solving games. Participants will develop their own original performance, which will be showcased within Bernier Dance’s program Friday and Saturday nights.
“Wrappers is tremendously creative,” Bernier Dance artistic creator, choreographer and founder Cindy Bernier said. “It’s all about the student’s creation and how that manifests itself in the performance.”
According to Bernier, “Wrappers” was created for students with varying interests in the performing arts. The workshop will focus on movement, rather than dance — “Wrappers” is a show based on spur-of-the-moment, experimental theater work.
“This is the perfect opportunity to work in a setting where we come up with material really quickly [and] then perform it only a few hours later,” Bernier said. “It’s improv, but structured improv.”
In the workshop, students will participate in activities that promote group unity, establishing trust, developing awareness and creating “authentic response to stimuli.”
Then, the students will design a unique movement, acting and improvisational performance, based on the theme of the workshop — “are you the product, or the package?”
Bernier Dance will then present five original performance pieces involving multimedia movement work, projected photography, the spoken word and movement improv and music. “Wrappers” will be one of the five performances, in which Yale students will participate.
Bernier Dance asks that, if possible, audience members bring candy wrappers or boxes of any kind to aid the performance.
Garner expressed excitement towards the blending of theater and dance in “Wrappers.”
“I hope the dancers are willing to move out of their comfort zones, because we so easily fall into patterns,” she said.