A Connecticut College dance major won the nation's highest award for student choreography at the 10th National College Dance Festival gala at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., May 15.
Filip Condeescu, a dance major from Bucharest, Rumania, and now a Connecticut College graduate, was named "Outstanding Student Choreographer," a national award presented jointly by the National American College Dance Festival Association (ACDFA) and DANCE magazine. Condeescu was nominated last spring by the New England ACDFA to vie among those representing nine other regions throughout the country for the award.
The biennial, national event showcases students' presentations selected from each of the nine regional festival competitions sponsored by the national ACDFA. Thirty-five colleges and universities presented 46 pieces in the New England regional adjudication at Boston University last February. Condeescu's contemporary piece - "Perpetuum" - was one of three selected by the New England festival to be performed at the Kennedy Center gala May 13 to 15.
"It's amazing. I started dancing only four years ago and for this to happen is a dream come true," said Condeescu. Performing in the piece with Condeescu were Connecticut College dance majors Karen Lee Engelman, Brooke Gessay, Katherine Kiefer Stark and Nile Russell, dance minor Laura Sharp, and freshman Cara Liquori.
The New England regional adjudication selected from about 30 presentations three pieces - presented by students from Connecticut College, Middlebury College and Harvard University - to be performed at the Kennedy Center's Terrace Theater.
Condeescu's "Perpetuum," a contemporary dance piece to music by Goran Bregovic, begins with dancers gathered around a table "marking a metaphorical, perpetual space of a psychological, philosophical state of mind and world of no meaning and no way out," explained Condeescu, who said the main theme is about the evils that are going on in the world. As the piece progresses, the dancers move to the whole of the dance floor, "where they have no knowledge or hope or energy" to escape. Instead, they perpetuate their state of minds by "playing mind games" and inflicting evils on one another. "An alternative is offered in the possibility of a genuine love relationship when a newcomer to the group arrives." The struggle between the two opposing philosophical states of mind is dramatic and provocative.
Condeescu, a double major in sociology and dance, was accepted at some of the best dance graduate schools in the country. He recently chose to enroll in the Master's of Fine Arts dance program at California State University at Long Beach. He said his background in sociology strongly influenced the creation of the piece. "It opened my eyes to a variety of socio-political issues that I wanted to address in the piece, like sexual identity and racial issues, which I hope will provoke audiences."
"Filip grew up in Romania where the political isolation and influence consistently suppresses the attempt for individuality; he needed an environment that was safe for him to discover his individuality and artistic voice," said Lan-Lan Wang, dance department chair, who noted that Condeescu applied to become a dance major with no prior dance training. "He found that at Connecticut College. He was eager to explore and to express and, as a result, he flourished in the creative domain and grew as a performer with a strong stage presence. His determination, curiosity, talent and intelligence moved him to become a choreographer with his own identity as an Eastern European."
The ACDF's primary focus is to support and promote the wealth of talent and creativity that is prominent throughout college and university dance departments. It sponsors workshops, lecture/demonstrations and master classes taught by instructors from throughout the country. It also provides the opportunity for students and faculty to have their dance works adjudicated by a panel of nationally recognized dance professionals in an open and constructive forum. |
