L – R: Heinrich-Wong, Christie and Li
This spring, three graduating master’s students in Case Western Reserve’s dance department, Mikayla Heinrich-Wong, Zhaonian Li, and Claire Christie, will be performing their thesis in a show titled Emergence. Inspired by their shared location and how they will be moving into a new stage of life, each student will showcase their journey as an individual performer and how important collaboration is as they dance together one last time.
Strength and Love
In her ensemble piece titled In the Quiet, Heinrich-Wong will be exploring the strength an individual can find through confidence and quietness. Through suspension and momentum, the ensemble will find their individual strength and assure each other in their confidences. Heinrich-Wong described the process as one of her favorite parts of dance.
Heinrich-Wong
“Movement in its simplest form can be so genuine and so authentic that it can communicate and so strongly resonate with people differently,”Heinrich-Wong added.
Heinrich-Wong will also be performing a duet alongside Li titled Because I Care. Together, the pair will explore the cyclical nature of caring for another person through spatial tension and support. Audiences will observe the evolution of caring and supporting another person in an undefined but loving relationship.
Movement and Innovation
Zi
When curating his ensemble piece Untitled, Li was heavily influenced by the percussive movements and our kinetic responses to them. He prepared by listening to the rhythms around us, finding them to be extremely enriching. Li will be fluctuating through tension and relief as the music around him changes, inviting the audience to see how we can understand active and passive rhythms across sounds and culture.
In her solo piece titled Reverie, Christie will be exploring the art and depth of live performance, a vital focus of her thesis. Choreographed by Mary-Elizabeth Fenn (a 2022 MFA graduate) Christie will illuminate the intersection between embodiment and artistic experimentation as a way to present her unique physical and performative strengths through another’s choreography. Reverie will not only be a showcase of who Christie is as a performing artist, but her how far she has come through her graduate studies.
Christie
Christie’s will also be paying tribute to the women of dance in her ensemble piece titled To Whom Her Legacy Moves. Through innovation and tradition, the eight dancer ensemble will become a living example of the resilience in female artistry through Christie’s choreography. The biggest inspirations for this piece: Martha Graham and Doris Humphrey, two American modern dancers pioneers and choreographers. Christie hopes to invite the audience to reflect on the power of lineage, movement, and the unbroken chain of female artistry that continues to contribute and shape the evolution of dance.
Coming Together
The trio will come together in a performance titled Emerging. Audiences will observe Heinrich-Wong, Li, and Christie each perform separate solos that will then be woven together in a beautiful way. Each dancer will play on their collective strengths as performers.
“There is a beauty in the difference and similarities,” Christie noted.
Audiences will be able to see the cohesiveness and collaboration that makes up dance as an art form as the pair has evolved together over three years.
“There has been so much growth as humans,” Li added with a smile as he looked at Christie and Heinrich-Wong.
Purchase tickets to see these incredible dancers and their combined talents! Performances will be held in the Mather Dance Center on March 27, 28, 29, at 7:30 p.m. and March 30, at 2:30 p.m.