Goucher Repertory Dance Ensemble held their fall concert on Friday, November 17 and Saturday, November 18 to close out a successful semester of contemplative choreographic processes.
The curated evening opened with a tap solo created and performed by individualized interdisciplinary major Tess Seibert ‘25 entitled rapt//wrapped in sonder. The piece began with an unexpected entrance from the lobby that captured the audience’s attention instantly, establishing a dramatic tone that was subsequently interrupted by Seibert’s comedic sense of timing.
Next was One Ocean, the preliminary draft of a larger work set by guest artist Gabrielle Lamb on six students this past September. The movement quality was calm yet held tension—a delicious dichotomy with which to execute organic shapes that mimicked ocean waves. Complemented by the voice of naturalist and free-diver Craig Foster, iridescent costumes by Hannah Brill, and soft light washes, the work exuded a meditative ethereality.
Third, faculty member Linda Garofalo was represented by her original work What Lies Dormant. Set on a 13-person cast, this piece was a conflation of the natural cycles of life, death, and rebirth with the four seasons. These themes were accentuated with costumes hand painted by Carter Hinton-Ayodele ‘25 and the use of fake snow in the last segment of the work. Garofalo effortlessly manipulated simple movement vocabulary with her intriguing use of stage space, at one point crafting a geometric formation contained to the right of center, making stage left heavy with emptiness.
After a brief pause in the program came Hands Passing by dance major Nalani Brown ‘26. Driven by the motif of intricate hand gestures, the work set on five dancers was an agonizing inquiry into how isolation affects our communal capacity to heal from it. Viewers were stirred by Brown’s impressive command of visceral empathy and the performers’ emotional commitment.
“Lady” Peaceful, “Lady” Happy was screened penultimately as the only dance film of the night. Triple major Sam Koseff ‘25 with cinematographic assistance from Amelia Lazzini ‘25 created a luxuriously theatric solo to Natasha Richardson’s rendition of Maybe This Time. The piece was recorded in Kraushaar Auditorium with the camera almost exclusively capturing Koseff’s back against the backdrop of row after row of empty seats. Not only did this create an eerie effect as audience members were confronted with the desolate venue they actively occupied, it clearly encapsulated Koseff’s vision of questioning what it means to perform for oneself versus others.
The show was concluded by ingrained…!, a dynamic scrapbook of everything faculty member Mustapha Braimah loves in performance art: movement, spoken word, live drumming, and singing. Backlighting kissed the dancers as they moved from multiple centers of their bodies, creating a strong silhouette of the group performing as one. Ending with the recitation of Mutabaruka’s Dis Poem, this finale challenged the apathy that is too commonly observed in the face of systemic oppression and socio-political injustice.
By Tess Seibert ’25
