Two Barnard seniors, Julia Discenza and Marjie Shrimpton (BC ’14) have taken on the challenge of creating, directing, and producing a collaborative piece of evening-length dance. What does evening-length entail in the dance world? An evening-length dance piece is a piece of choreography greater than 60 minutes usually that tells a self-contained story of some sort. But HERE isn’t just about dance, as the directors chose to incorporate elements of “music, film, and performance art to address the significance of place, space, and community throughout different aspects of the human experience.”

Their endeavor will be the first independent dance project of its kind that Barnard has ever seen. The directors decided to go above and beyond the scholastic requirements for their capstone project to create HERE, a piece that gained life and momentum from every artist involved. The piece is a conglomeration of short scenes inspired by “real and imagined spaces and places from the creators’ and cast members’ lived experiences.” The story of HERE is a story to which everyone can relate.

From co-creators Marjie Shrimpton and Julia Discenza:

“It has been an incredible adventure to conceive and create this work with a team of such gifted artists, and we hope to bring audiences on a transformative and exciting journey. The whole creative team has taken the idea to heart and made it their own, so the production is so much bigger than just our original vision. It’s been really thrilling and beautiful to see our cast invest themselves in our dreams for this work, and graciously contribute their ideas to our creative process.”

HERE performs Saturday, April 19th at 3 pm and 7 pm in the Glicker-Milstein Theatre. Tickets are $5 with CUID and can be bought online or at TIC.