Embodying Your Alter Ego
Embody Dance Collective Brings Transformative Showcase to the Stage
By Sam Mathers
Embody Dance Collective asks, “What happens when you let go of who you’re supposed to be and step into who you really are?”
Their May 9 showcase, Alter Ego, will feature more than 60 dancers performing the entirely original choreography they have been perfecting over the past 16 weeks. When asked what people can expect from the show, director Emma Dubinsky and choreographer Maddy Bouvier share a knowing laugh and answer: “so much.”
This will be the first time Embody has produced a full dance show; their previous showcase was more of a variety style and featured guest performances. “It was incredible, but I think we're just really proud this time that we could fill up a whole show with just our students and just our dances,” Dubinsky says.
Using descriptors like “hard-hitting, intense, and sensual,” Dubinsky says they have “multiple styles of dance, everything from heels to hip hop, burlesque, jazz, and contemporary. We have a vocalist. We even have some Bollywood. [...] I feel like we’re covering a lot with the show.”
“Every single number is exciting,” Bouvier adds. “It's something different, and they're all so very different from each other that I think if I wasn't in it, I would love to be an audience member for this show specifically because of the amount of different genres there are, different types of numbers, and all the work that not only the choreographers have put in, but the students as well.”
Dubinsky and Bouvier have witnessed the way dance can transform an individual. “It's incredible, honestly, to see the growth in people over the span of the program, just in the way that they carry themselves,” Dubinsky says. Bouvier, who teaches burlesque and heels classes, says, “I teach confidence, not just dance.”
This was the inspiration behind the show’s theme. Despite their differences in age, experience, and background, the dancers at Embody have one thing in common: when they’re on stage, they can be whoever they want to be.
“Our show is going to be taking the audience on [that] journey,” Dubinsky says. “Going from your everyday life, then finding something within yourself that wants to tap into a higher, more divine version of yourself. […] Still being you, but just a different version of you, something that you can tap into and explore.”
Catch Alter Ego on May 9 at 2 and 7 pm at Trinity Hall Theatre. Tickets can be purchased on Eventbrite.
