Students have a chance to see Ball State University Dance Theatre do a different kind of show today as it will incorporate more technology into the performance.
"Dance Revelations," a show that combines dance choreography and technology, premieres today at the University Theatre.
The Dance Theatre production focuses on lighting design and the use of videos and projections for the dancers' backgrounds.
Senior dance major Chadae' Nichol said the show was different from others because of the variety of dances in one production.
"But I think that as a dancer our challenge cumulatively is to make sure that for each dance, we bring something different to the table," she said.
This is Nichol's sixth time participating in a Dance Theatre production.
Assistant professor of dance Lou Ann Young is a co-dance director of the show. She said different designers and choreographers created the choreography for each piece.
"Each one of the choreographers was assigned a light designer and a technical person," she said. "So they had to work together and get the concept that the choreographers were wanting and I think it worked out."
Young said it was the dance department's first time working with technological designers.
Assistant professor of dance Greg Lund is the choreographer of the first part of the show. Lund said he met several challenges in the making of the piece.
"In reality I didn't realize when I started out that I ended up with probably the most technologically difficult pieces of the show," he said. "When we usually take one hour on set, we end up taking three hours just to get my piece ready because it was a matter of coordinating video and lights, dance and fast costume changes."
Lund's choreography, "Blast to the Past," starts with contemporary dances which move back to the 50s step-by-step. About 40 costumes are used for "Blast to the Past," he said.
"The students that are in the production love the piece," he said. "And I think for any audience members who are older, this piece will hit an era that is no longer here today and so there is a little bit of nostalgia involved when you look back at it."
Nichol said this year's production is being presented earlier than in other years.
"One challenge for me for this particular show was mastering all the dances in a shorter amount of time than I'm used to," she said. "After Spring Break, when I came to the theater it was like crunch time, and I don't think a lot of us, including myself, even realized we didn't have time to play around and that we had to pull it together because it was so soon in the semester."
Nichol said she thought the use of technology for the different choreographies was a good idea because it helped visually.
"I definitely think it was a good idea, particularly for the first piece, because it goes through the decades, and that is probably one of the best accounts for technology at its best," she said. The fact that we go through the different types of music and we have the videos or projections to go along with that, that's a good addition."
Nichols said the idea of using innovative content in their productions maintains the audience's attention.
"We have to pull together the acting and the personality and the charisma in the stage parts so that it will keep people in their seats interested in the different pieces," she said.
The show is at 7:30 tonight through Saturday and 2:30 p.m. Sunday in University Theatre.
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