2008 Woodie Awards
Freed Voices
MTSU Dance Theatre celebrates diversity
Laura Roberts
Issue date: 1/24/08 Section: Features
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That same weekend, MTSU Dance Theatre did its part in observing the esteemed holiday.
"Freed Voices: A Dance Concert Featuring Choreography and Performance by African-American Guest Artists" was performed on Jan. 19 and 20 at MTSU's Tucker Theater to honor the late, great Dr. King and to celebrate diversity.
MTSU's Director of Dance Kim Nofsinger served as the artistic director of Freed Voices and came up with the production idea midway through 2006.
As time went on, Nofsinger contacted four internationally and nationally known chorographers and performers he thought would be best for the production: Zelma Badu-Younge, Travis D. Gatling, Ursula Payne, and Erica Wilson-Perkins.
Nofsinger then chose the student dancers who would perform alongside them.
Out of the 45 members of MTSU Dance Theatre, Nofsinger selected 30 students to dance in Freed Voices. The students worked hard to make the production the best it could be. Nofsinger said this included the dancers giving up their fall break last semester for forty hours of rehearsals. Those same students also came back to campus a week before classes began this year in order to put in fifty hours of work to learn the last number of the production, "Stories of the Bones".
Senior marketing major and MTSU Dance Theatre dancer James Roberts didn't complain though. Roberts said it was nothing short of a pleasure working with "Stories of the Bones" chorographer Payne.
"I really love working with Ursula," Roberts said. "She makes you want to come back and keep going."
Roberts also said that his favorite piece of the production was the "Stories of the Bones" number.
"It creeps into me," Roberts said. "I feel like I loose myself in it."
In the end, all the chorographers and students' hard work paid off when the curtain went up at Tucker Theatre this past weekend. The debut of "Freed Voices" was composed of seven numbers, four of which were premiere pieces.
One of the earlier numbers in the show was a premiere choreographed by Badu-Younge and entitled "Marie-Joseph Angelique." The piece included a narration that told the true story of a slave named Marie-Joseph Angelique. In 1734, Angelique was accused of setting fire to buildings in Montreal and was later hung for the crimes. During the piece, Badu-Younge performed a solo dance with blue and purple lighting flooding onstage. Towards the latter part of the number, a girl dressed in black came out with a rope. Badu-Younge incorporated the rope in her dance as red-flamed lighting was illuminated in the background.
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