Crescent (2018)

Through detailed improvisational structures, this work for seven dancers evokes the visual essence of smoke, water currents, and the ever shifting starry sky. Similar to a school of fish, they flow circularly and dart away divergently. Within this interconnected bond, a sense of tender and altruistic behavior for the group is formed.  

Full Tilt - Velocity Dance Center - Seattle WA - April 2018

Choreography: Melissa Sanderson in collaboration with the performers

Performance: Sophia Arnall, Kara Beadle, Tiffany Bierly, Ivana Lin, Ellen Peterson, Ana Puzycki, Kelsey Stolhand

Music: Matanza, Stavroz

Photos: Joseph Lambert

SeattleDances review

“Melissa Sanderson’s Crescent also stood out this evening. The piece’s six dancers worked effectively as ensemble member, costumed identically in maroon biketards, they reached that sought-after unison state in which no one dancer is more conspicuous than any other. Three duets gradually gave way to revolving trios in a thoughtful, almost mathematical design, while the soothing electronic music kept the piece’s dynamic smooth throughout. Sanderson’s movement vocabulary featured a sensual intertwining of limbs as the dancers progressed, caravan-style, around the stage in an ovular pattern. Sometimes standing up to grab one toe in a yogic leg extension and at other times dropping low into wide, gooey lounges, the dancers ended in a rippling clump of limbs, as if the dance they were performing was really an ongoing frame of mind with neither beginning nor end.” Full Article

Philippa Myler, May 2018