University of Oklahoma School of Dance

Reynolds Performing Arts Center

April 6 – May 1, 2016

Choreographed by:  Sonia Dawkins

Scenic Designer:  Jon Young

Costume Designer:  Stephanie Luckey

 

Love Letter is a modern dance piece choreographed by Sonia Dawkins.  She describes it as all about love and love letters, allowing the individual dancers to express their own feelings about love through their dance.  Throughout the piece, dancers experience the joys and pain of love, the exchange of letters and intents, and all the while are more letters.

 

When beginning our design discussions Sonia Dawkins said she wanted a sharp and isolated world, the capacity to highlight at certain tables but still open the world for shaping.  The color palate was very neutral, very little saturation in almost all moments of the dance.  Shaping the performers in neutral light allowed the dance to represent any particular aspect of love or love letters without directing us in any particular direction.

 

Since the costumes were largely neutral as well, I chose side colors that only had small tints of color to them, so we could lightly balance them in the space.  Several highlighted moments required very specific lighting to get a dynamic shaped effect.  This included a line of very saturated blue light in an alley upstage for one of the moments of the dance.  Briefly we would see some color behind the performers, but then the background was shifted to a solid black, and we would remain there.

 

One of the most powerful moments of the dance was at the conclusion when one dancer is on a table, and two others are rotating her around on it.  In a single downlight, she is suddenly showered by many letters dropped from above.  There are always more letters.

 

I loved collaborating with Sonia on this piece, as we were able to find great focusing moments through the dance and provide just the right timing for the shifts of the tables and dancers.  I appreciated Sonia’s thoroughness of thought throughout this piece, including making sure each letter was actually a love letter, something written by one of the dancers.  This connection to the piece that they would dance was powerful.