Capturing [e]motion: Ariana Guzman's Blue Boy

There are dancers, choreographers,

teachers, and then there are the majority of us that end up doing all of it-and more! As a celebration of being back to dance and classes, for this post I want to focus on a special choreographer in my life and the opportunity she gave me to photograph her work.

At the end of the Bachelor's of Fine Arts in Dance Performance/Choreography at the University of North Carolina Greensboro, dance majors are expected to do a senior thesis project which for most of us consists of choreographing a substantial piece of work on a group of dancers throughout the semester. I had the privilege to do my senior thesis this past year, and one of my colleagues, Ariana Guzman, was a huge inspiration to the work I ended up producing. She also provided me with unknowing mentorship throughout the entire process that I sincerely appreciated.

When it came time for show week, I took up my unofficial role as the UNCG dance photographer and made sure to get photos for as many of the choreographers pieces' as possible, but some of my favorite shots that I took throughout that experience were from Ariana's piece, Blue Boy. These are the photos, such as the one above with dancers Mary Evelyn Hunt and Jurne Smith, that I would like to share and discuss with you all to describe how dance as an ephemeral medium can leave a genuinely powerful impact on artists and the general public alike.

Blue Boy focuses on the gestures and coping mechanisms of a child living with Autism and it was conceived from personal relationships in Ariana and her cast member's lives. In the piece, she remained in her signature upbeat and quirky style of movement, which allowed her to tackle a topic stereotypically portrayed in a melancholy way, as a celebration of uniqueness.

I was lucky enough to get to photograph this piece a number of times throughout the dress rehearsal process. One of the elements of the piece that made it incredibly enjoyable for the audience was each dancer's embodiment of character. Therefore, when I was photographing this piece, I chose to focus mostly on the individuals to capture the character that lived in each of them. In the photo to the right, Becca Johanson is pictured in her solo about halfway through the nine minute piece. The movement in Becca's solo focused mostly on her feet-she would furiously dig her feet into the floor or rub them intensely with her hands. This photo displays her in the action of rubbing her feet on the floor, capturing the sidelight that emphasizes her distressed facial expression and clenched fists. The shadowing highlights the drama of the situation, making it feel theatrical, but her emotion connects the viewer in a more genuine way to the message in the movement. Another aspect of this photo that I enjoy is her swinging ponytail and the way it compliments the childish tone of the overalls. Ariana combined all of these methods of characterization to help evoke both a sympathetic and empathetic celebration of individuals living with Autism.

This photo of Emily Zyczkiewicz is another that captures a unique personality. Her solo was directly correlated with a specific music change, which allowed it to grab the audience's attention effectively and make them smile. She had a signature move of washing her hair and could not help but crack a smile at every chance she got to perform this move. In this photo, the light was shining directly towards the front of her body, illuminating her funky expression and casting dynamic on her hands. My favorite part of this photo is her left hand and how the light glows between her fingers making it pop out. Her eyes also take precedent in the photo and add to it's lighthearted tone.

Although Ariana's piece explored movement through individuals and their characters, she had fourteen dancers in total. Speaking as a choreographer that was worried about how I would use eight people onstage, I can only imagine how difficult it was to work with fourteen. However, an element of her choreography that I sincerely admire and sought to explore in the photos I took of her piece is her spatial design and groupings. This piece was meant to put the audience's senses in high alert and had various scenes happening at every given moment, but the beauty in it was that every group managed to stand on their own because of the commitment that was given by each individual dancer.

An example of the way she utilized space in Blue Boy is in the photo to the left. Here, dancer Toni Clark is featured in the foreground performing one of the signature gestures from the piece- a flick off the shoulder with both hands. She is flanked by a separate scene happening in the background with dancers Victoria Steadman and Emily Zyczkiewicz. Foreground/Background movement is a choreographic tool that allows for different scenes to be developing simultaneously and adds a third dimension of space to the piece. Movement can compliment or juxtapose depending on the choreographer's preference and the piece's meaning. In this photo, the main attraction is in the foreground, drawing the viewer into the portrait of Toni's gaze and her arm gesture. The viewer can tell that there is motion because her top hand is blurred. However, the background helps add context to the foreground by the dancer's being frozen in their candid motion and also completing the composition by forming a triangle. These dancer's positions in the photo gives it depth and contrast between Toni kneeling at a medium level and the dancers in the back standing at a high level. I utilize these techniques of understanding composition in both choreography and photography, and it's because of what I noticed/learned from my professors but mostly my peers such as Ariana. She really is a master of space.

For another example of spatial design and composition, take a look at the photo to the right featuring dancer Kassandra Kolbeck. What I love most about this photo is the reflection of the scene happening in the background in the foreground. The lighting from the sides caused this along the black floor creating an illusion of water, which of course has nothing to do with the meaning of the piece but does have an aesthetically pleasing effect. It also has another unique composition-all of the dancers are standing in a line towards the back of the stage. Their individual identities are lost to the importance of the group, and this is another way that Ariana utilized characterization in Blue Boy. Individuals were not the only method of portraying her sympathetic celebration of Autism, she also used the group as a whole as a way to approach the topic with empathy in connection with the audience. In this photo, Kassandra is the one moving, but she begins to blend with the dancers behind her as she joins the group- it is a frozen moment that captures the importance of unity and genuine relationships.

It was a pleasure capturing photographs of my colleague's work and analyzing the ways she played with characterization, and spatial composition. These two aspects of her work drew the audience into the piece making it a work that is hard to forget. I wish her the best with the future she has before her and hope our collaborations never stop!

#choreogrpahy #dancephotography #UNCGdance #Greensborophotography