There are endless ways to tell a story, one way being through dance. It’s not a permanent medium, it’s a fleeting moment; one must watch the story unfold through movement before one’s eyes and understand the story through one’s own experiences of life. Not one person will have the same understanding of a dance performance as another because not one person has the same exact life experiences as another.
Dance takes the dancer and the audience to another place. Erin performs a piece entitled Where the Sidewalk Ends, choreographed by CMU student choreographer Laken Hoody, immersing herself as well as the audience into the story through a completely different world.
“There is a place where the sidewalk ends, and before the street begins, ” Shel Silverstein recites from the poem. “And there the grass grows soft and white, and there the sun burns crimson bright,”
This place, where the sidewalk ends, is uncharted territory for the dancer playing the character in the story. All her life she has been told what to do, what not to do, and what path she must take to be successful in life. But is that what I really want for myself? It’s time for her to choose; she is at the end of the already-paved path.
“And there the moon-bird rests from his flight, to cool in the peppermint wind,”
Her body is filled with nervousness as her mind fights between the options of her future that keep her up at night; though, her heart already knows.
“Let us leave this place where the smoke blows black, and the dark street winds and bends, past the pits where the asphalt flowers grow,”
Her life so far has been made up of choices that others have made for her. When do I get a say? This isn’t the life she wants for herself, but she doesn’t want to disappoint those closest to her. The internal battle of guilt has kept her on the path they’ve wanted her on for this long, but now someone, the universe, has asked her what she wants.
“We shall walk with a walk that is measured in slow, and we’ll go where the chalk-white arrows go,”
Cautiously, she approaches the end of the sidewalk. Her dominant foot lurches forward, hovering over the ledge of the unfinished pavement, until her body retracts back to the safety of the far side of the sidewalk. What if they’re right?
Internally, she is conflicted, but she contemplates each side. The only person who has to live this life is me.
She takes a running start toward the end of the sidewalk and leaps fearlessly over the threshold. You will never know unless you try.
“For the children, they mark, and the children, they know, the place where the sidewalk ends.”
Erin Siebert, Central Michigan University junior, reflects on her journey learning and performing Where the Sidewalk Ends, a contemporary dance piece choreographed by CMU senior student choreographer Laken Hoody for CMU’s University Theatre and Dance Company’s (UTDC) Spring Concert of April 2021.
Erin learns the beginning of Where the Sidewalk Ends at one of her first few practices in the Rose studio on the campus of Central Michigan University on Wednesday, February 17, 2021. A knee drop takes a lot of energy and can be hard on the legs, knees, and back, which is always taken into consideration when a choreographer is putting choreography onto another dancer, who may not be as comfortable or as able physically to perform the same movements.
The eight dancers, including Erin, second in from the right, gather together for the first time for their first Sunday Showcase where all the dancers perform the choreography they have learned of their piece so far. This is where everyone introduces their pieces to the rest of the choreographers and dancers, as well as the light and costume designers so they can begin creating the scene for each dance. The UTDC Spring Concert normally consists of several numbers that could be group, solo, duet, or trio pieces, but due to COVID-19, this year’s concert is made up of eight solos.
Erin gets into her first spacing rehearsal to ensure the choreography stays on the stage in Bush Theater on the campus of Central Michigan University. This year’s spacing is different from any other year previous, because it’ll be completely live-streamed each night of show week. If a dancer steps beyond the marked lines of the stage, the dancer will be off the screen and missed completely by the audience.
Erin practices twice a week for two hours each throughout the entire semester in the Rose studio. Practices can get tiresome and enduring, and that can be clearly seen through a dancer’s feet. Dancer feet show the journey of the physical battles they’ve worked mercilessly through in order to get to this point; they show all the accomplishments, defeats, and everything in-between through bruises, scuffs, swelling, and all different-colored markings.
Backstage, the dancers wait silently for their turn to perform at a dress rehearsal to ensure their costume works cohesively with their choreography on the Bush Theater stage.
Erin continuously runs the choreography until it can become muscle memory. When the piece becomes muscle memory, she can make the choreography a little more her own, putting feeling, thought, and emotion into each movement to better tell the story behind Where the Sidewalk Ends.
Heather Trommer-Beardslee, Dance Program Coordinator of CMU’s Department of Theatre and Dance and Artistic Director of the UTDC Spring Concert, gives her last pep talk and final critiques before opening night the next night. At this point, everything has been done in order for the show to be successful, and now it’s time to show what everyone has been working so hard to produce.
As opening night’s concert approaches, ticket-holders tune into the live stream to watch on Thursday, April 22, 2021. As long as they have a ticket, Internet access, and a device to watch it on, viewers can watch anywhere. Laken tunes into the stream with her family and friends while out to dinner at Red Lobster, a few miles from Bush Theater where her dancer, Erin, is performing Where the Sidewalk Ends.
Bowing is a sign of gratitude to the audience for watching and listening, signaling the end of something. This bow is in the choreography specifically placed near the end of Where the Sidewalk Ends. Erin’s character, throughout the piece, struggles with deciding which path to take on her way through life, not knowing if she should listen to the ones close to her or to what her heart wants. She finally breaks free from the paralyzing guilt of what others want for her and quite literally leaps into the world she’s always wanted for herself, realizing this and dancing in the realm of her new mindset. She bows, but her story is not done here, though, her internal battle is. She is now exactly where she has wanted to be, the place where the sidewalk ends.