Students in Chapman University’s Department of Dance spent weeks connecting, through one-on-one conversations via Zoom, with a group of residents from the Emerald Court senior living community in Anaheim.
A 100-year Holocaust survivor shared 80-year-old memories of her time spent in Nazi-occupied Europe.
A resident opened up about her about battles with depression.
Another resident shared about coping with her diminishing eyesight sight.
On Monday, the students and seniors met in person for the first time, as the students revealed their interpretations of those conversations through two choreographed dance routines.
The performances were staged in the Emerald Court Courtyard, with about 40 residents in attendance.
Dancer Kiley Panasuk described her collaboration with 100-year-old Holocaust survivor Desiree Engel as “eye opening.”
“I’ve never heard an account from a Holocaust survivor,” Panasuk said. “It’s so beautiful to see how much love Desiree holds in her heart, despite all the hardships she has been through. Desiree lived through it. She is history.”
Translating Engle’s young life into fluid abstract movements, the Chapman junior simulated exploding bombs, fleeing to Switzerland and Italy, journeying through the Alps and spending months on a boat.
“One of the first things I thought of was a gesture that represents going on the boat,” Panasuk said. “I was like, how do I make that more artistic to sway with it. You follow your focus with it and then it becomes this movement that is rowing a boat, but it is dance.”
While Panasuk was choreographing the routine, she would perform snippets during their Zoom meetings and seek Engel’s feedback.
“We worked on it together,” said Engle, who turned 100 on April 18. “She couldn’t have done better.”
For dancer Lauren Leung, her connection and subsequent friendship with Rosette Vicente, 83, wound up becoming much more than a collaboration on a dance routine.
Leong is half Filipino, and when she discovered Vicente lived in the Philippines most of her life, the relationship morphed into a deeply personal experience for Leong.
Leong’s Filipino grandmother died about 10 years ago.
“It’s a second chance to reach out to my lola again,” Leong said, using the Filipino term for a grandmother. “Even though it was not her, I still got to feel the same connections and the same emotions as well. I knew that I wanted to create a piece that was very emotionally connected and very passionate.”
For Vicente, watching Leong perform reawakened memories of dancing with her husband.
“I’ve never seen anyone dance as good as this one,” Vicente said of Leong’s interpretive performance. “It’s so beautiful. I’ll never forget meeting Lauren.”
Leong said her piece is “very interpretive and that is what I really love about dance. You don’t only need one language to learn it. You can learn all cultures, all ethnicities, all heritages and then incorporate into something beautiful.”
Julianne O’Brien, chair of the Department of Dance at Chapman, said the performances exceeded her expectations.
“The students put those stories into their bodies, into the non-verbal language of dance to gestures, mimes and shapes,” O’Brien said. “They collaged their stories together into two large dances. It’s gone above and beyond my wildest dreams.”
Source: https://www.ocregister.com/2021/05/18/seniors-share-life-stories-with-students-students-share-dance-with-seniors/
