Momentum
Choreographers: Amy Walker O’Brien, Aimee Rials, Daniel Gwirtzman
Scenic Designers: Fabiola Alvarado Berrios, Kelly Butler
Lighting Designer: Cali Trainor
Sound Designer: Don Tindall
Costume Designer: Sarah Marshall
Charge Scenic Artist: August Rich-Remenicky
Assistant Scenic Artist: Maddy McCarthy
In addition to the hand written letters, my Scenic charge and I created a woodgrain texture on the bench designed by Berrios. Based on her research, we had to choose a base color and a paint color to mix with our glazing liquid in order to create the smooth grain of the wood as seen in the image below.
This dance concert consisted of three different dance pieces, Letters We Keep choreographed by Amy O’Brien, Guests Only choreographed by Daniel Gwirtzman, and Fugue State choreographed by Amiee Rials. The Scenic Design for Letters We Keep was done by Fabiola Alvarado Berrios, Guests Only was scenically designed by Kelly Butler, and Fugue State was co-designed by bother Butler and Berrios.
Fugue State was deceiving challenging. At first just rolling on the color was quite a simple task. However, as we got into tech, it was revealed that the material used to create the shapes was quite thin and light was able to shine through in a way that hindered both the scenic and lighting design. To combat this problem in the time constraints we had, my team ended up painting the back of the shapes while they were hung in the air.
Letters We keep was a piece about letters from loved one and other people in our lives, exploring relationships and human connection through the movement of body. The design for this piece was simple yet effective. Stings of hand written letters hung from linesets and a bench with cubbies for more letters was used for more levels and ways of connecting.
The main tasks for this piece were woodgraining the platforms, archway, and bar. Similar to the bench in the piece Letters We Keep, we worked with the Scenic Designer to pick a color for the wood base and wood grain based on her research. Once picked, we budgeted out how much paint we would need for each step based on the draftings provided and got to work once the paint was ordered.
As seen in the picture below, the designer asked for the wood grain on the platforms to look like planks rather than one giant piece of wood. To achieve this look, my team and I used a charcoal snap to place down the measurements of each plank. Then, as we painted down each plank, we tried to keep distinct lines by varying the amount of pigment we placed on each section.
In the fall of 2022, I was an Assistant Scenic Artist on a dance concert at Ithaca College called Momentum. This show took place in the Hoerner Theatre, a 535 seat proscenium. production started in October of 2022 and the last showing was on December 4th of 2022.
For this piece, we worked with the props team to write out over a hundred hand written letters to the attach to the rope hanging from the linesets.
For this piece, I worked with the designers to settle on which color and finish of paint they waned for the flying shapes. Once that decision was settled on, my team and I used rollers to roll on the chosen paint onto the shapes.
Guests Only was a piece that used the energy of Jazz music to represent the energy of life. Butler created the setting a a jazz club with two platforms and a large archway to represent the door.
The piece titled Fugue State was focused on the fusion of classical music and unlikely movement. To represent this in the scenic design, Butler and Berrios created a series of oblong, organic hanging shapes (as pictured below) that flew in and out periodically throughout the piece.
In addition to all the artistic collaboration with the designers, I also helped budget all the materials used for the treatment surfaces as well as lead a team of about 10 artists of varying skill to be able to complete the job on time.
