The Transcript

By Nicole Barhorst

Ohio Wesleyan students and staff, as well as Delaware community members, filled Chappelear Drama Center Friday night for a performance by RHAW, the first hip-hop dance theater dance company in the world.

Sophomore Nathan LaFrombois said he thought the “passionate” RHAW performance “set the standard” for future Performing Art Series shows at Ohio Wesleyan.

“I had never heard of concert hip-hop before; it was a new concept for me,” he said. “My favorite part was whenever individuals were spotlighted with the group dancing in sync behind.”

Established in 2007, RHAW stands for “Rennie Harris Awe-Inspiring Works,” according to the company’s website.  This youth dance company was created as a preparatory group for the Harris’s Puremovement company, which features older dancers and was started in 1991.

Harris said he established the company because of the “overwhelming interest from teens and young adults” to join Puremovement.

RHAW trains pre-professional dancers and teaches them the history of street dancing, professionalism and techniques in various street-dancing styles.

The main goal of this Philadelphia-based company is to “encourage youth by demonstrating discipline and focus through Hip-hop theater performance, and education and outreach programing,” the website said.

The best part of the performance, according Delaware community member Erica Ankrom, was a piece choreographed to Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” because it was “slower and had a story.”

According to the website, the piece is part of the full-length dance musical “Love American Style” that RHAW is premiering next week at Frostburg State University in Maryland. The musical addresses themes such as bullying and family relationships.

Ankrom said even though she doesn’t know anything about dance, she really enjoyed the performance.

Jenn Meckley, a Delaware community member, said she attended the event because she saw the Rennie Harris Puremovement Company perform a few years ago and enjoyed it.

She said she thought the RHAW performance was “energetic” and she loved seeing the dancers freestyle.

In a post-show question-and-answer session, RHAW member Brandyn Harris, son of Rennie Harris, said he’s been dancing for most of his life, but wasn’t interested in being part of the company at first because he really liked “to eat and play video games.”

Harris’s friend and fellow RHAW member Davion “Skates” Brown said he got his nickname from his background in skateboarding.  Originally from western Philadelphia, he has been dancing with RHAW for four years.

“Everything I’ve done with skateboarding easily translated to dance,” Brown said.

Rich Edwards, four-year chair of the Performing Art Series for four years, said OWU has been hosting visiting artists for about a century, and that the events in this series “meet a high standard of performance that is enjoyable, thought-provoking and inspiring.”

Edwards said he and his colleagues try to create “special educational experiences” as often as possible for students to have with the visiting artists. These experiences include discussion groups or master classes where students can learn how the artists created their performances.

Edwards said there are five other events in the 2013-14 Performing Art Series: a New York Jazz quintet, a Japanese/Indian music duo, a one-man comedy show, the Central Ohio Symphony from Delaware and a new age ensemble for modern classical music.

By Adelle Brodbeck

Transcript Reporter

Ha Le and Alex Michener, both seniors at Ohio Wesleyan, formally showcased their art exhibit “Windows” last Wednesday before leaving to attend the New York Arts Program for the rest of the fall semester.

Both students said they pride themselves in creating art that reflects their semi-surreal impression of their surroundings. Le and Michener said they based their art on real people in their lives, but allowed their creative insight to portray them in a completely unique way. Or as they wrote in their statement for the show, “their paintings and drawings are not just realistic copies of the real world, they are windows through which (the artists) see the world…”

Le said she took inspiration for most of her pieces in the show from the women in her life, particularly her mother.

“My mom is an endless source of inspiration because of her beauty, her strong soul, and her limitless love for the family,” she said.

“Jessica” and “Contemplating” are two of Le’s charcoal drawings that specifically reveal her view of strong women.

The former shows a nude woman from the waist up with a determined and tough expression. The latter depicts what appear to be three different women, but Le said it was actually the same model who she drew in different positions.

“All of the figures in the drawing are gazing towards one direction as if they’re waiting for something, or someone,” said Le. “All of the figures are naked women, causing the viewer to question: ‘Why? What’s going on? Who are they?’”

Le interested not only in portraying women in a thought provoking way, but also in illuminating the diversity of the different people in her life.

“I do find a lot of inspiration in people,” she said. “I appreciate all the similarities as well as differences. While similarities connect people, differences make us human, not mass-produced robots. Differences makes me question my own values and become more open-minded, which is really important for me as an artist.”

Like Le, Michener draws inspiration from real people; but he said he is concerned more with portraying his subjects as accurately as possible.

“I really enjoy the struggle to convey some sense of recognizability,” he said.

Michener’s artistic style is distinctive. He utilizes saturated colors and a technique involving Mylar transparency in the portraits of his friends.

“I developed the Mylar process based on some printmaking ideas of color layering,” he said.

By painting a transparent sheet and then layering it on top of an already vivid picture, Michener creates vibrant and imaginative portraits.

Michener’s two self-portraits—“selfies,” as he jokingly calls them—stand out among his other paintings. For these two pieces he did not use the same layering technique, but instead made them distinct through their drastic size differences.

“Big Selfie” was the largest display in the exhibit, as the canvas was made up of two large wooden doors. Directly across from “Big Selfie” is the accompanying “Little Selfie,” which, as its name implies, is much smaller in comparison.

“I like that they’re staring at each other because they’re opposites in a way,” Michener said. “The large painting was done in about a day and in one shot, meaning I jumped straight into the final image. I was much fussier with the smaller one.”

The placement of the portraits, in addition to the size difference, allows viewers to more easily compare and contrast the two.

“Windows” received positive feedback from OWU’s campus, as shown by thanks and compliments left by friends, family and staff in a notebook in the exhibit hall. One particular comment thanked the artists for inspiring her to become a better artist. This remark is one of the many signs of the strong support system in OWU’s artistic community.

“[The department] always encourages me a lot, gives me advice when I’m in need, helps me out in any situation,” Le said. “Without all that, I wouldn’t have become who I am today.”

Soon after opening night, Le and Michener left to attend OWU’s New York Arts Program. The program helps arrange internships that will help students experience what it’s like to pursue a career in the arts.

Le is working with Jean Shin, an artist who is internationally recognized for her extravagant public installments. Le said she hopes to get a more practical take on the art world, as well as experience the diverse environment of New York.

Michener, on the other hand, is interning as a studio assistant with artists Ellen Altfest and Alexi Worth. Michener said the experience so far is “an amazing opportunity to shadow working painters and learn what sorts of issues that they need to overcome.”

As a final piece of advice to others who wish to follow in the footsteps of the two aspiring artists, Le said, “Art is not a game you play in your free time, nor a journey that has a specific destination. It is limitless, so you’d better prepare yourself.”

By Jane Suttmeier

Opera Workshop, a vocal performance club, has started rehearsals for their February 2014 performance of Stephen Sodheim’s musical, “A Little Night Music”.

Professor of Music Jason Hiester and Tim Veach, the Artistic Director and the founder of Columbus Dance Theatre, are heading the production. Stephen Sondheim wrote both the music and the lyrics based on the film “Smiles” of “A Summer Night”, by Ingmar Bergman.

“A Little Night Music” is set in Sweden in 1900 and follows the escapades of three couples.

Junior Gabe Incarnato, a music major who normally sings bass, is singing baritone-tenor for this production and said it is the hardest music he has learned to date. Incarnato is cast as lawyer Frederick Egerman in the production.

Junior Brianna Robinson, a vocal performance major, is playing Mrs. Nordstrom, a character that narrates the show with four other singers as the “Liebslieders.”

Robinson also said the music in the show is difficult, which she attributes to Sondheim’s technique.

“There are many key changes and somewhat unnatural melodies,” she said. “But even with this, the music is very beautiful and structured in a wonderful way.”

The cast has already started rehearsals and will rehearse throughout the fall for a February opening. Sophomore Hannah Simpson, who will play Charlotte, said she is glad the company is starting rehearsals early “because the music is very complex.”

Like Incarnato, she is switching vocal range for the show.

“Not only is my character’s vocal range much lower than what I am used to singing, (but) the music itself is also some of the trickiest music I have ever encountered.”

Simpson said she is excited to perform in a Sondheim show at OWU.

“I am a huge fan of Sondheim,” she said. “His music is brilliant, intricate and clever, and I am so fortunate that I get to perform his music.”

Sondheim’s work has won an Academy Award, eight Tony awards, eight Grammy awards and a Pulitzer Prize. His most famous pieces as a composer and lyricist are “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum,” “Company,” “Follies,” “Sweeney Todd,” “Sunday in the Park with George” and “Into the Woods.” Sondheim also wrote the lyrics for the popular musicals “West Side Story” and “Gypsy.”

Robinson said she is happy to be on a stage performing at OWU this year.

“I could spend the rest of my life singing, acting and dancing on a stage,” she said.

Although the performance is months away, the cast has already begun picking their favorite songs.

Simpson said her favorite is “Everyday A Little Death,” which she will perform as Charlotte.

“It’s tragic, beautiful and unsettling all at the same time,” she said. “I’m really looking forward to performing it.”