SUNY Oswego student dancers take part in video segments that will be projected during "Weight of Water," a multimedia dance presentation coming to SUNY Oswego's Waterman Theatre at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 21.
The SUNY Oswego multimedia dance project “Weight of Water” will explore ways local bodies of water impact community members during a free performance starting at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 21, in Tyler Hall’s Waterman Theatre.
The project is a collaboration of two SUNY Oswego faculty members –- Paul Leary of music and Soma Mei Sheng Fraizer of English and creative writing –- with Rose Pasquarello Beauchamp from the University of Rochester’s dance faculty and visual artist Andrea Gluckman.
“Weight of Water” features dance, video projection, poetry, live interactive electronic music and Leary’s seven-foot musical wheel. Professional dancers as well as SUNY Oswego student dancers will perform live or appear in projected videos.
“It’s through an Artswego grant and we wanted to do something collaborative,” Leary said. “I love interdisciplinary stuff so I wanted to do something with different disciplines highlighted. I also love big multimedia experiences. It’s amazing how it’s come together.”
Leary composed all the music and the production will feature some of Fraizer’s poetry.
“Soma’s poems are really amazing, and also abstract in a way,” Leary said. “It definitely invites interpretation when you see it.”
In addition, computer science professor James Early is lending a hand in ensuring key technological considerations will work. The big musical wheel uses sensors that send data through a router to generate the sounds.
The planning started two years ago -- and was twice postponed by COVID -- as part of the previous college-wide Grand Challenge: Fresh Water for All.
“We did a lot of filming with the dancers at Rice Creek and Fallbrook and at the lake, so the production will be about water in our world,” “The footage is all from Oswego. It’s about nature and our equilibrium, as well as the use of water for industry and water in our environment.”
For more information or for those needing accommodations to attend, email artswego@oswego.edu.
For more information on Artswego Performing Arts Series events, visit oswego.edu/artswego.