Photos from UCLA Dept. of World Arts and Cultures
Robin Prichard performs in a self-choreographed
production at Kaufman Hall.
By Chris Young
Daily Bruin Contributor
Like many people, Robin Prichard, a third-year MFA choreography
student, found herself swept up in the chaos of everyday life at
UCLA. Unlike many people, however, she decided to make sense of
this hyper-modern world by staging the new dance-based performance
“After Yesterday’s Crash.”
Premiering today at Kaufman Hall, the performance uses original
interpretations and choreography to show people trying to sort
their way through the confusion of today’s society.
“I think a lot of students have this sense of things not
having any stability, trying to reach out and capture a moment of
permanence, when everything ends up moving away,” Prichard
said.
“From living situations and relationships to your own
perceptions, everything changes,” Prichard added.
The evening of choreography consists of two separate pieces: the
titular show “After Yesterday’s Crash” and
“Meeting in the Middle.”
“After Yesterday’s Crash” is a trilogy of solo
compositions that deal with the instability of modern life.
Throughout the piece, Prichard examines issues that vex and
frustrate people as they deal with everyday situations.
“After Yesterday’s Crash” finds people looking
for a moment of stability in a world that constantly shifts and
attempting to gather together all the pieces of their life.
In the second solo composition, the protagonist journeys into a
fantastical voyage of reincarnation and the expectations for her
next life. These glimpses into her future reflect the multiple
facets of her personality.
“She has many choices and her potential is so great, a
chaos and instability ensues,” Prichard said.
 Robin Prichard leaps up in the air in
"After Yesterday’s Crash." In the third part, a woman follows a
lettered path on the stage. After becoming continually stuck and
led off the path, she is thrown into chaos.
In “Meeting in the Middle,” Prichard explores the
theme of negotiations in relationships and in art. She examines
power struggles between individuals and how people work their
issues out diplomatically. The two characters in the piece start
out at opposite ends of the stage and after numerous verbal
compromises end up walking toward one another to symbolically and
physically meet in the middle.
Both works use a combination of dance and language to
communicate their ideas to the audience. Prichard said that the
spoken words and the dance movements are intimately related, as
they give two different perspectives on an idea.
“It’s like examining life through a prism,”
she said. “You can view one thing from two different
angles.”
Sometimes the words have symbolic meaning underneath the
physical movements; other times the dance underlies the words.
“The dancer will say something calmly to prove her
composure but actually transmit something else with her body
movements,” Prichard said.
Prichard added that a lot of humor and irony exists between the
dance and spoken words. There are also many quick changes in the
dance choreography and language that add to the feeling of
instability.
“I created the performance with a general audience in
mind,” Prichard said. The spoken words help in this aspect,
lending insight to the characters
and their actions.
Prichard expects people will be able to identify with the work,
because dance can communicate with people on a visceral and
physical level, speaking to their kinetic knowledge of the body.
But viewers don’t need to come to the performance with any
special knowledge of dance.
According to Justina Blakeney, a fourth-year world arts and
cultures and Italian student who is in the performance, people
often come to a dance production expecting that they won’t be
able to understand what is going on. They believe that the
performance will be too complex or intricate, something that is
untrue about “After Tomorrow’s Crash.”
“On an innate level, people can relate to “˜After
Yesterday’s Crash,'” Blakeney said.
“It’s not like the audience just sits there and watches
people perform.”
According to dancer Stephanie Nugent, dancers love what the
feeling of moving evokes in them emotionally.
“I love being able to communicate with someone on a
physical level, both with other performers and the audience,”
Nugent said.”If I can relate to the audience on a physical
level, then the dance has succeeded.”
For Prichard, her choreography is a means of bringing up
conflicts and working out problems in her own life.
“You create art out of the substance of your life,”
Prichard said. “Whatever is most present is what the work is
about.”
DANCE: “After Yesterday’s
Crash” runs Feb. 23 and 24 at 8 p.m. in Kaufman Hall, Theatre
200. Tickets are $10 general, $8 for students. Call (310) 825-2101
for tickets.