If you're stuck at Tufts on Tuesday night and need a break from that dreary lab report, sashay on over to Jackson Gym for this year's installment of "Rough and Ready: Boston Dance Experiments."
Although the title may suggest otherwise, the show will be anything but unpolished. The veteran choreography team, Daniel McCusker and Kelley Donovan, are both dance connoisseurs who have been involved in performance theater for many years.
Performed annually, the "Rough and Ready" series attempts to show Tufts students how professional artists attain perfection through the creative process. McCusker specifically asked Kelley Donovan to participate in the "Rough and Ready" performance series because he has been able to observe her "grow and get more sophisticated" with time and feels that Tufts students will be able to watch and learn from such a valuable performer.
Kelley Donovan's featured piece, "Windows and Glass Walls," is performed by nine different women, attempting to examine their own spiritualities and identities through interpretation of the private self and individual movement. A work in progress, the piece has already been performed at the Boston Choreographer's Group, and will move on from Tufts to be performed again at Green Street Studios on April 1st and 2nd.
McCusker's dance, "Like the River with the Same Name," is a bit more abstract, exploring relationships among the sections of a dance suite. This is a conversational piece in which, according to McCusker, characters will "give and take," infusing their movements with meaning to create a dynamic physical dialogue.
After graduating from The College at Lincoln Center/Fordham, McCusker studied modern technique at various studios in New York City before dancing with the Lucinda Childs' Dance Company. He then became the artistic director of the Ram Island Dance Group, a community dance center in Portland, Maine. In addition to his work as a professional choreographer, McCusker served as a professor at Holy Cross, and is currently a full-time lecturer at Tufts.
Donovan, after studying Creative Arts at Bradford College, began presenting choreography in Boston area venues like the Zeitgeist Gallery, The Dance Complex, Green Street Studios, Mass College of Art, and The Actor's Workshop. She formed her own dance company entitled "Kelley Donovan & Dancers" in 1997 and has been working with them ever since, creating abstract modern dance pieces.
McCusker, who has been dancing for years, says he began the art because he "liked moving. It was that simple." Although he never considered dance as a career in college, while pursuing a degree in Comparative Literature he decided to take full advantage of his age and agility.
McCusker feels passionately about live performance and says that the experience of watching art take place creates a communal feeling amongst audience members. "A dance performance is not like a television program where it has already been recorded," he says. "There are always mistakes and particular quirks during live performances."
