Echo Movement
Choreography: Alexsandria Wahl
Music: Empty Playground by Ketsa
Fomalhaut by Pictures of the Floating World
Voices of Sherry Sellers and Eleanor Shipley
Costume and Lighting Designer: Alexsandria Wahl
Dancer: Alexsandria Wahl
Disclaimer: COVID-19 social distancing precautions were in place for the filming and production of this work.
The stories and experiences that become our lives live on in traces of memory and in the body of those who listen. While introspective, this work explores academic and artistic research of embodied archive and memory. Using recorded conversations from my great-grandmother Eleanor and grandmother Sherry, the work evolved to be a collection of my own familial inheritance of memory. My will to archive these memories across time intersects with my own lived experience and thus this dance was born. I approached this project as a historian and dancemaker and hope to continue research such as this in the future.
Special thanks to my advisor Rebekah Kowal for always encouraging me. This process has been a growing experience and I will forever appreciate your guidance and insight. Thank you to all the faculty members and graduate students who have helped me grow along the way. Your mentorship has made a lasting impression for me to carry into my dance career. To my fellow BFAs, I cannot express how much our little family means to me and I have loved every moment of the past four years with you all. And lastly to my parents, thank you for your unending support. I’m proud to be a first-generation college graduate and I owe this moment to you.
Photos
Alexsandria Wahl is in the final semester of earning her BFA in dance with a minor in history from the University of Iowa. Over the past four years, she has had the honor of working with Jessica Anthony, Eloy Barragán, Armando Duarte, Kristin Marrs, Christopher-Rasheem McMillan, Julia Cooper, Sarah Olsen, and Kate Vincek. Upon graduation, Alexsandria intends to continue dancing, working artistically, and adapting to new challenges of professional life.