Making their mark: This is聽of profiles celebrating members of Rochester鈥檚 graduating class of 2018.
Erin Dong 鈥�18 knew from a young age that she wanted to study biology. While at the 人妻少妇专区, she supplemented her coursework with stints as a volunteer in rehabilitation physical therapy at the Medical Center and as a research assistant in the School of Nursing. But what surprised her during her time at Rochester was that she also developed a love of dance, leading her to double major in both and
For her senior capstone project, Dong created a dance called 鈥淭he Beautiful Awful: Experiencing Grief Through Movement鈥� that combines aspects of both her majors. Along the way, she learned important lessons about the creative process, taking risks, and the wisdom that can come from failure.
鈥淚 only started dancing when I came to college,鈥� Dong says. 鈥淏ut I love how it鈥檚 this universal way of expression. In my senior project, I wanted to help people remember the loss they felt and experienced, connect to others who also shared that, and allow them to feel the emotions in their entire bodies, not just in their heads.鈥�
Dong started her project by examining other performances, specifically Bill T. Jones鈥檚 piece 鈥淪till/Here鈥� and 鈥淒ying and dying and dying鈥� by dance company MBDance, who visited Rochester in January. For his piece, Jones hosted a series of 鈥渟urvivor workshops鈥� with the terminally ill and had them map out their lives and deaths by moving in a space. 鈥淒ying and dying and dying鈥� depicted various endings in life, such as the death of an individual and of a culture.
Inspired by Jones, “I realized that if I wanted to make something that spoke to a larger audience, I had to first find a topic that resonated with me,鈥� Dong says.
It was around this time that her beloved grandmother, Peggy, passed away.聽Dong was at a dance conference in Boston, during which she saw a dance by students at Bates College called 鈥淭hat鈥檚 All, Folks.鈥� The choreographers had asked people from all different backgrounds how they would spend their last days on Earth. The dancers鈥� movements mirrored the answers, which ranged from 鈥渟itting and watching the sun rise鈥� to 鈥渆ating a gallon of ice cream with my childhood sweetheart.鈥�
鈥淪eeing this dance is when I finally cried about my grandmother, because I was able to connect to the joy, but also the pain and the sadness, evident onstage,鈥� Dong says. 鈥淭he piece really coaxed out my emotion and gave me a safe space to feel.鈥�
Dong realized she wanted to create a similar kind of space in her own dance鈥攐ne in which people would have an outlet to grieve freely. She turned to her knowledge of anatomy and physiology to create a piece that incorporated not only the emotional aspects of the grieving process, but the physical symptoms as well.
The body is the dancer鈥檚 instrument; therefore, a sound understanding of the body鈥檚 anatomy, mechanics, and the functions involved in movement are important in dance, says Anne Harris Wilcox, a senior lecturer in the at Rochester and Dong鈥檚 faculty mentor.
鈥淏oth dance and biology foster the principle of connection, proving that nothing works in isolation. Any effect on a part of the body, affects the whole,鈥� Wilcox says. 鈥淓rin鈥檚 second major, biology, is a fabulous partner to her dance and choreography research; it helped her appreciate the multi-dimensional understanding of the human body and its inter-connected systems.鈥�
Dong researched the somatic symptoms associated with grief, such as fatigue, chest pains, and shortness of breath. During her first attempt to choreograph the dance, she used the stage to represent the human body and dancers to represent different emotions. She wanted audience members to be up on stage and have the dancers talk and interact with them.
鈥淲hen I tried to put it all together, it turned out to be an epic fail,鈥� Dong says, laughing. 鈥淚 was trying to do too much, and I lost sight of the human-nature side of my piece.鈥�
Dong overhauled the project to better satisfy her vision of a piece that would walk the audience through the grieving process, similar to the way a counselor might guide patients through talk therapy.
鈥淚t鈥檚 rare to see someone have the courage to scrap an idea and keep digging, but that鈥檚 exactly what Erin did,鈥� Wilcox says. 鈥淪he saw the wisdom in 鈥榝ailing鈥� and learned that knowing what doesn鈥檛 work is just as important in any process.鈥�
In her second attempt, Dong collected qualitative data, asking individuals to describe their emotions and bodily sensations when they first heard they had lost a loved one. She modeled each section of her new dance after a different element of grief and included spoken text, taken verbatim from what people had told her when recounting their own experiences.
She incorporated lighting design to suggest various emotional elements: dancers are at times isolated, shadowed, or completely removed from the light. 鈥淭he Beautiful Awful鈥� also has the dancers move into the audience, the opposite of Dong鈥檚 original idea to have the audience move to the dancers. 鈥淵ou never ask a grieving person to meet you where you are,鈥� she explains. 鈥淵ou want to meet them where they are in their grief.鈥�
The final product is a meditation on grief that brings together science, emotion, and creative movement. But it’s the lessons she learned from the process that Dong will carry with her as she begins graduate studies. This summer she starts a three-year, doctoral-track program for physical therapy at the University of Pittsburgh.
鈥淲hen it comes to dance you have to learn how to take risks and do new things, and that also translates to the rest of life,鈥� she says. “Coming into college as a freshman, I was really timid and not very confident in myself. Dance has given me a lot more self-assurance.鈥�
