March 3, 2018: Reflecting on the Symposium

On March 3, 2018, everyone involved in Ecce Etude gathered at Brown University for the ASAP Symposium.  It was a day long event full of wonderful discussions, movement, performance, and thoughtful and talented people from a variety of populations.  Before performing Ecce Etude, we all took a master class together  taught by Dancing Legacy company members that gave some background on Ecce Etude  and allowed class participants to choose to learn a short phrase from Ecce Etude either seated or standing.  Everyone in the room got to be a part of the process of this dance!  Below is a picture from the class: 

After class, we performed Ecce Etude.  This was a beautiful performance where we, as a collective cast, performed the piece three times to allow each person to perform, as several parts were triple cast.  We also watched a performance from Dancing Legacy company members of the trio version of Ecce Etude, a performance from the Central Falls students of an original piece they created about beauty, and heard from several people about what Ecce Etude and this process means to them.  Below are some pictures from the performance:

I loved seeing the product that all of our rehearsal created. I loved being in the space and enjoying the performance with everyone, as this was the first time everyone involved in the various parts of this process was in the space together.  One of my favorite parts of the performance, though, was watching the dance that the Central Falls students created about what they understood beauty to be and where they see beauty in themselves and in their lives.  After getting to know them over the past few weeks, it was breathtaking to watch them take what they had learned throughout the process of piecing together Ecce Etude and use it to make art about their own experiences.  I've been a part of the ASAP Symposium all four years I've been at Brown, but this Symposium was by far my favorite because it really allowed all of the groups involved in the process to really get to know each other and grow by learning from each other.  I'm so proud of all of the work everyone involved put into Ecce Etude ​and the symposium, and I'm so grateful to have been a part of this process.