The vision:

Prior to Vassar, I had never been in a dance group. I had never taken lessons. However, in the spirit of trying something new, I decided to join the non-audition group on campus, wanting to try something new. In the fall semester of my junior year, I decided I wanted to try choreographing and knew from the first moment I heard MARINA's new album Love + Fear that "No More Suckers" was the song. I had gone through a difficult year emotionally, so I wanted to create a piece with the narrative of letting go of toxic relationships but in a light-hearted anthem. I collaborated with a friend with dance experience who helped translate my some of my more incoherent movements into clear directives. 

​

The process:

I am a firm believer in creativity as a process reliant on appropriation and decontextualization to create something new. There were two dance motifs that I was particularly inspired by (both from K-Pop artists). The first was the movement of literally drawing a line that I wanted to repeat in various manifestations throughout the dance, as seen in a chorus movement in IU's "BIBBI." The sixth image of a line of dancers creating an ascending line was adapted from Twice's "Feel Special." Finally, the last explicit reference I drew from was a few back leg kicks from the performance of "This is Me" in The Greatest Showman, paying tribute to my love of the theatrical energy in musicals. Generally, the movements were meant to represent motions associated with drama and frustration but with the energy of a person dancing in their underwear without a care in the world.

​

The aesthetic:

For the aesthetic, I knew from the beginning that I wanted bright colors, with an orange background in particular. Though orange is my least favorite color, it was an image that fixated in my mind, and the majority of the piece is bathed in a tangerine tone. I wanted the bridge to indicate a bitterness and "bruising" that MARINA sings about, opting for a purple tone before ending the final chorus in a celebratory fuchsia pink. For the styling, I wanted florals, partially thought of in reference to another song off the same album "Orange Trees" with the line "flowers in my hair."

​

The performance:

As someone who had dabbled in studio arts, music, and writing, I had never experienced the exhibition of my work with live feedback in this way where the audience cheers to indicate which parts they enjoy the most. It was exciting and incredibly rewarding to choreograph this dance and to channel my creative energy into a project working with bodies and performativity.

​