It's hard to imagine the earth destroyed, but even harder to envision is the rebirth as a beautiful process, yet, a student-run dance production hopes to make that image a reality.
Today and tomorrow at 7:30 p.m., DePauw students will perform The Elements, an artistic dance based on a marching show about spirits who rescue a destroyed Earth by building back up the four elements: air, earth, water and fire.
Sophomore Andre Williams, the choreographer of the dance, said the idea came to him in high school. As a third grader he started copying moves from the television show So You Think You Can Dance?, and when Williams came to DePauw he looked for an outlet for his talent. After joining Excel, a dance group on campus, he suggested The Elements as a possibility for a performance.
"They all went nuts over it because they've wanted to do that for years," Williams said.
For students like freshman Alison Howard, The Elements offers her an opportunity to continue her love of dance when she otherwise might not have had the chance.
"I've always loved dancing and DePauw doesn't have as many outlets for [it]," Howard said. "This production really offered a great opportunity for everyone who wanted to do dance."
The lack of a formal dance program at DePauw makes this performance special for participants. Freshman Claire Hatton said that such a program would be beneficial for students if the support and facilities are there, and Williams said he feels as if "something's missing" without a dance program.
"Deb Grammel [adjunct assistant professor of dance] is absolutely amazing at what she does, and I give her credit for that," Williams said. "I just wish we had more here for dance. It's unfortunate because I know a lot of people on campus who have been dancing for years, and then, once they got here, they just stopped."
Yet the passion in these student dancers has not faded in this performance. The students involved are very fervent about the dance and are looking forward to see their hard work paid off.
"We're all getting kind of nervous since it is getting down to crunch time," Hatton said. "But it's starting to come together beautifully so I'm really excited for it."
Howard and Hatton are ready for an audience to come see the dance they have worked so hard on this semester and think that people will enjoy seeing a different kind of performance.
"People can always come and see a theatre production or a musical theatre production," Howard said. "This is a different kind of experience. It's all about the concept. You'll see people's facial features and that helps to tell the story, but it's all about the choreography."
Hatton agrees that this is a different type of show than people are used to seeing.
"It's just beyond boundaries," she said. "It's beautiful if you let yourself just listen to the music and watch our feelings through our movement. I think people should come and appreciate it. It can appeal on a lot of levels for different people."
In addition to the passion expressed in the dance, the message of caring for the environment is also compelling. The Elements is sponsored in part by the DePauw Environmental Club, and the production has a strong conservational message to it.
Williams refers to the dance as a "reality check." Humans now, he said, are in the process of destroying the elements featured in the performance.
"It's a beautiful nightmare," Williams said. "If we don't start taking care of what we have, it will get destroyed and then we'll have to start all over. And the process of starting over may be beautiful, that's what we're depicting, but it's also a mourning."