Ambivalence was inspired by the idea of life and community having both ups and downs.

Choreography by Melaina Muth

Performers: Mateo Ahmad, Lillian Brown, Madeline Cordray, Audrey Fendler

Lighting by Jacob Goldberg

Costumes by the dancers and Indiana University Costume Department

All photos below by Lindsay Osten

For a this piece, I focused on the different emotional relationships people can have with one another and conveyed it through multiple different dance forms and musical scores. The piece guided the audience through a night where a friend group fell apart and transitioned from positive to negative emotions regarding each other. It included elements of contemporary, ballroom (specifically waltz and rumba) and hip hop. One of the exercises I used to create the piece had the dancers fill in the blank to create a phrase together that would then be used as the main phrase of the dance. I also had the dancers create their own phrases and modify the tempo and pattern of the phrases to create duets. In addition to this, I incorporated many pedestrian movements and chances for the dancers to act and react to various stimuli and emotional concepts that allowed them to communicate the plot through body language and not dance movements