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Language And Motion: An Elegant Relationship

February 26, 2015 by 4dancers

re|dance
RE|Dance Group, photo by Cole Witter

by Michael Estanich

As a dance artist I strive to build connections—between viewer and dancer, between music and action, between image and feeling. For me, moving is the purest way to do that, though its purity needn’t be exclusive. At RE|Dance Group, I develop work that explores the limitless range of human feeling. In order to accomplish this, I stack a variety of images atop each other in the hopes of crafting a multi-sensational experience for the audience. Because all of my senses so beautifully intertwine allowing me to feel deeply and experience life, I welcome all sensorial images into my work. I rely on the audience’s willingness to dispel tradition and embrace curiosity.

Text and visual design collide with movement in all of RE|Dance Group’s work. I create fully realized worlds where every action, sound, and visual carries important information in understanding the whole. I find that these multiple entry points invite the viewer to lean forward and feel.

I enjoy memories and remembering. There is visceral pleasure in retelling something from the past. To me, words and action are undeniably linked. I enjoy how memories translate in my body—through action and in words. I enjoy the process of connecting what I hear to what I see. It is remarkable how willingly the mind catches on and constructs truth and understanding when we engage with all of our senses.

RE|Dance Group, photo by Robert Roser
RE|Dance Group, photo by Robert Roser

There is comfort in language. We rely on it to let others know how we feel and what we need. To use language to share a part of myself seems so natural. To juxtapose language with motion excites me. Both together enrich the possibility to understand and to feel. This notion is important to me. I want the audience to know that we are complex, that we are moving, hearing, speaking, smelling, tasting, feeling beings and that they can recognize a part of themselves in a singular, special moment inside my work.

With that goal in my mind, I use whatever medium most potently communicates the idea—be it a sly, organic dancing trio, a cacophony of sound, a massive large-scale visual sculpture, or a simple connection through language. Each on their own is powerful art, but combined they produce a complex aural and visual landscape where, as an artist, I get lost in the beauty of my imagination.


See RE|Dance Group perform “It’s About Love Again This Year” at Links Hall, March 6-8 2015. Learn more about the company on the website.


Michael HeadshotMichael Estanich (Artistic Director, RE|Dance Group) is an Associate Professor of Dance at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. He teaches modern dance, composition, dance pedagogy, movement analysis and dance history. He earned his MFA from The Ohio State University and his BFA from Denison University. His creative research currently examines ideas of space, architecture, landscape and habitation often resulting in dances supported by sculptural environments. He and Lucy formed RE|Dance Group in 2009 as a means to explore long distance collaboration. Michael’s performance credits include Molly Shanahan/Mad Shak, Cerulean Dance Theatre, Rebecca Rosen, Melanie Bales, Bebe Miller and a reconstruction of Mark Morris’ acclaimed choreography All Fours. He teaches annually at the Trollwood Performing Arts School in Moorhead, MN and at the American College Dance Association (ACDA). He is the North Central Regional Director of ACDA.

Filed Under: Making Dances Tagged With: choreography, dance artist, language and dance, lucy riner, making dances, michael estanich, RE|Dance Group, text and dance

Support RE|Dance Group

July 1, 2011 by 4dancers

Contributing writer Lucy Vurusic Riner would love your support during her dance company’s annual fundraising campaign!  Get all information and updates on RE|Dance Group at www.redancegroup.com or “Like” them on Facebook.  I’ve included her annual newsletter below so you can see what the company is up to and how to give!

Dear RE|Dance Group Supporter,

We hope you are having a lovely start to the spring season.  With the flowers finally in bloom, RE|Dance Group is budding with new ideas and charged with the energy to push the company forward.

Our inaugural year was a huge success and we would like to thank everyone for your support.  We had the privilege of presenting our work in San Francisco, CA, Minneapolis, MN and at home here in Chicago, IL.  Also this year we became a sponsored project of Fractured Atlas, a non-profit arts service organization dedicated to assisting small arts companies.   RE|Dance Group is artistically thriving and in the coming year we hope to build inroads toward financial health.  As we push forward into year two, we hope that you have the opportunity to see the work we are creating.

We are very excited about the beginning stages of two new dance theater works.  Inhabitants of Tall Grass will premiere in January at Chicago’s historic dance venue, Links Hall.  We will preview a works in progress at the Harvest Chicago Contemporary Dance Festival in September. The work will have an original commissioned music score and will be performed amidst an installation of tall reed grasses.  The environment is designed to both shield and reveal the dancers as they roam through the installation searching for personal connection.  This piece is being partially funded by an Illinois Arts Council Grant that we have been so fortunate to receive!

The Attic Room is an intimate dance story of escape and desire.  The evening length work for six dancers exists in a small attic room where the dancers, clad in fantastical owl masks, long for a way out, convinced they can find it through objects sprinkled through the space. An old map, a flock of paper cranes, a dusty antique rug, tiny glowing lamps and stacks of books offer the dancers the possibility for departure from a place now so comfortable they are unsure of their desires to escape. The Attic Room is filled with images of balance, travel and desire.  Again this year, we will be presenting our work at the Minnesota Fringe Festival in Minneapolis from August 4th-14th.  Hopefully we’ll see some of you there!

We hope that as you begin to enjoy the warm weather and summer months you’ll have time to consider assisting RE|Dance Group in our continued efforts to create meaningful dance theater.  Our fundraising goal during this campaign is $3,000.00.  This year’s funding campaign will once again help RE|Dance Group return to the Minnesota Fringe Festival and sponsor our Chicago performance season. We could not have made it this far without your support in whatever ways you have been able to provide it.

The easiest way to make a contribution to RE|Dance Group is through our website.  It is easy, safe and secure.  Simply click Donate Now and you will be directed to the Fractured Atlas contribution page. Thanks to our fiscal sponsorship through Fractured Atlas, all donations are now tax deductible!

If you don’t feel comfortable contributing online, you can drop Catherine an e-mail here at info (at) catherineltully.com and she’ll give you a mailing address so you can drop a check in the mail. If you can’t donate, but would like to help, spread the word!

Thank you for your generous support.  We hope to see you in one of our audiences very soon!

Lucy and Michael

Artistic Directors

RE|Dance Group

RE | Dance Group is a sponsored project of Fractured Atlas, a non-profit arts service organization. Contributions for the purposes of RE|Dance Group must be made payable to Fractured Atlas and are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.

Filed Under: 4dancers, 4teachers, Organizations Tagged With: fractured atlas, lucy riner, RE|Dance Group

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