A Special Look Into "Feeling Forward: A Dance Concert"

Time to put your dancing shoes on! Harper Joy is already looking forward to its final performance of the semester, Feeling Forward: A Dance Concert! 

Feeling Forward is set to feature pieces choreographed by Peter de Grasse, Renée Archibald and Lisa Uddin, and guest artist Kara Mack. All pieces will be choreographed in collaboration with the student performers, and this year, the ideas of futurity, multiplicity, and newness are driving creativity in the studio night after night. Amidst all of this intense rehearsal, we were lucky enough to hear from Peter de Grasse and learn more about why Whitman’s dance concerts are so special to him.

Peter is the Senior Lecturer of Dance at Whitman College, and has been creating pieces for the dance concerts for a number of years. One thing he says he loves most about Whitman’s dance concerts is that they allow the department to bring in phenomenal guest artists. “I'm thrilled that Kara Mack is joining us,” he says. “She is doing great work in the field, and is bringing the wisdom of that work here to the students. The concert is always a great opportunity for students to enrich, broaden, complement, and even challenge what they are getting here with us. I'm thrilled that Whitman students who come to the performance are going to witness that challenge, and the fruits of that challenge, firsthand!”

An image of Peter’s piece from the 2024 dance concert Roots and Bones.

As for Peter’s dance piece? He’s looking to experiment! “Colleagues and students reminded me recently that one of the things we do with this program is stretch people's ideas of what dancing is or what dancing can do,” he says. With that in mind, here’s what he had to say about his own creative process…

Peter de Grasse: I shared with [my] performers that they are not just dancing anywhere; they are dancing in a theater.  And the theater is an imaginarium—or, a technological container for an imaginal world. That means the practitioners of the theater are the dreamworkers of the society.  So, in the same way we have dreams in a moment of life crisis—and the dream, rather than working through a diagnosis or a set of instructions, works things out through imagery and the sensorium—we have theatrical performances in a moment of societal crisis, and again, we work things out not through rhetoric or policy, but through a more intuitive medium. So, it may be abrupt, bizarre, sensorial, intense, uncomfortable, but always working toward healing in a radical and intuitive way.  I think that means radical dreamwork is my goal. This year and every year!

And if he could describe his piece this year in one word? Peter says: “Anxious.”

How intriguing! The true essence of Whitman’s dance concerts really cannot be put into words—you’ll just have to see it for yourself! Feeling Forward runs from December 11–14th, and tickets for all shows are on sale now at whitman.universitytickets.com. Make sure to join us for a night of innovation, movement, and feeling!

Interested in supporting local dance? Peter would love if you checked out 5th Element’s event this weekend!

This Saturday, November 15th, from 10pm to 1:00am, 5th Element Project is throwing a benefit party for students in support of Bgirls, Bboys, DJs, artists, teachers who will join us for The Get Down Vol. 5, our annual cultural event in downtown Walla Walla. King Reds (Soul Felons, The Hoodz) will throw down on the ones and the twos! Come through, bring your friends, and get down!