Unique show debuts at ENMU

Correspondent

A show unlike any performed at Eastern New Mexico University in recent years debuted this weekend after over a year of planning, preparing and student-teacher collaboration.

Correspondent photo: Anna George

Nickkole Williams, an Eastern New Mexico University senior, puts her make up on for a performance of the experiment film and dance concert, Identity, in which she is a dancer.

The dance and experimental film concert titled “Identity” contained three parts depicting the stages of life, each with multiple experimental films and dance numbers.

The experimental piece tapped into the identities of each of the filmmakers, dancers and audience members as well as those involved in the directing aspects.

Bryan Hahn, the choreographer, said he thought about his own journey in order to visualize this piece.

“I tapped into my own struggles with trying to feel comfortable with myself and how that fits into the context of those around me,” Hahn said. “That was really my guiding light of this production.”

Shelly Short, the director, said she was pushed to do this piece by her fortieth birthday. She said it made her start thinking about her life and her identity.

“I wanted to think about where I had been, where I was, and where I wanted to be and start thinking of myself separately from others,” Short said.

She said, artistically, she always finds herself delving into the layers of identity, something she defines as traditions and beliefs, whether they were given to a person or found on their own.

Drel Nance, a dancer majoring in theatre at ENMU, said he thought mostly about dance as inspiration, something he considers an element of his own identity.

“Dancing is spiritual for me. It is just like singing or acting, you have to make yourself vulnerable in order to do it and that's how I tapped into my emotions to perform,” said Nance.

Maggie Plummer, an English major and dancer, said her performance was all about tapping into the fifteen years of experience she had with dance.

“I could talk about family issues or my depression, but when it came down to it, it was just my experience that drove me,” Plummer said.

Not only those directly involved found themselves thinking about their identity during their performance.

Iysha Melton, an ENMU freshman in between majors, said she thought the piece was absolutely amazing as an audience member and it made her think about her times in elementary school

“It really made me think about my identity and how when I was younger I was the only black girl, I was the tallest, and people picked on or labeled me but I was stronger because of it,” she said.

She said it really made her think and she wished she could have been a part of it because she had never seen dancing like that.

Chloe Rae Hammock, who added her voice to the experimental movies as an ENMU theater major, said the performance “blew her mind.”

She said talking about identity, such a vulnerable subject, was a nerve wracking experience but one she would do again.

“The show is just about who we are as humans and how we interact with each other and ourselves,” Hammock said.