Why everyone should support arts on UCSC campus

On November 18, 19, and 20, UCSC BarnStorm presented Dance Collisions: SPECTRA, a show featuring dance, spoken word poetry, and live music. The show was directed by UCSC students Makenna Pearlman Bantillo, Chloe Rosen, and Alyssa Soderberg.

Since May, the students have been working hard on creating “an exploration of the societal desire and pressure to sort everything into binaries, which can be problematic, especially when it comes to identity.”

Dance Collisions, a compilation show that combines miscellaneous choreography, saw a revival under the three directors this year who “decided to propose a new breed of Dance Collisions this fall,” Alyssa Soderberg, Mathematics major and Theater Arts-Dance minor.

“We wanted to incorporate performance artists that were not already part of the dance community. We collectively came up with the idea of having a theme-centric show,” Soderberg says, who helped eventually come up with the theme of oppressiveness of binaries.

I was lucky enough to watch SPECTRA, which started with the cast moving freely around the stage, talking and laughing together, and reenacting daily activities like texting, driving, and painting nails.

Once music and dance became implemented in the show, the entire audience became even more enthralled with the message of breaking free from oppressive binaries through performance.

Intertwined between dance numbers was spoken word poetry, ranging from the violation of a body through sexual violence and falling in love. While there were many topics covered in SPECTRA, all of the performances flowed together to create the beautiful message of living freely as yourself.

Following a Trump-Pence winning election, the show created a feeling of hope. Although the new leaders of the United States reject the idea of a spectrum in regards to gender and sexuality, it was empowering to watch so many talented students working together and embracing the destruction of binaries, allowing more equality for everyone. Dance Collisions: SPECTRA was a reminder to myself and others that the world has a plethora of accepting people, and a community of accepting friends is possible to have.

Although SPECTRA is no longer available to attend, seeing it was an important reminder to myself to support the arts on campus. The student directors put in nearly seven months of work into their show, and it was evident. 

Dance Collisions: SPECTRA provided me and many other students with a heartening reminder that there are lots of people in the world now fighting for equality together, and it can be done in a beautiful way.  

“The best part has to be the love. The joy. The freedom of expression. The inclusivity. You know when you feel like your heart is so full it could explode? That was me opening night, and I think most of the cast felt that too,” says Alyssa Soderberg. Not only the cast could feel it, the audience could feel it too.

BarnStorm accepts proposals several times throughout the year for students to put on different productions. Look for more information on future shows at http://barnstorm.ucsc.edu.