of art & design
Over the course of their academic careers, most college students experience times of high stress – choreographers Melissa Clapp and Lauren Grove are no different. Last fall Clapp and Grove both found themselves at the start of their senior year at NC State, under piles of work for their academic majors (accounting and ecology, respectively), and with a looming deadline to create a piece of work for the Dance Program Fall Concert.
“Melissa and I were each dancing in the other’s piece for the concert, but when we got together for rehearsals, all we could do was talk about how stressed we were. We were getting very little [choreography] work done,” said Grove. Realizing the anxiety was blocking their creative energy, the dancers began to problem-solve, consulting with Dance Program Director Robin Harris. Harris suggested the two collaborate on one dance for the concert, and soon everything started to fall into place.
Once the students landed on the idea of taking a test, complete with wooden desks, pencils and paper, they relied on their knowledge of choreographic craft to aid the building of the dance. “The creation of the piece was a true collaboration. Lauren would come up with an idea, then I would come up with something feeding off of hers, and it continued on like that, step after step,” said Clapp.
Clapp and Grove’s joint effort produced Close Your Eyes, a dance about the anxiety of test-taking and a blueprint of how to release that stress from the body. The piece was chosen to represent the NC State Dance Program at the Mid-Atlantic American College Dance Festival in Baltimore, where it was selected for performance on the conference’s Gala Concert. Additionally, Clapp and Grove were awarded the title of Best Student Choreographers of the Mid-Atlantic Region. As part of this honor, Clapp and Grove performed Close Your Eyes on June 3, 2008, as part of the American College Dance Festival Association’s National Gala at Miller Theatre in New York City.
“It was a great honor to represent NC State and our Dance Program by performing alongside so many excellent dance programs from across the nation. Also, since the theater was on Broadway, I can now say that I have danced on Broadway in New York City! [It was] something that I will always remember,” said Clapp.
Though we look forward to future dance collaborations, for now, both Clapp and Grove have set aside their choreographic talents to pursue other careers and advanced academic study. Clapp is currently a student in NC State’s Masters of Accounting program, while Grove continues to follow ecology, accepting a position as a research assistant at Louisiana State University and beginning graduate school there in 2009.