By Ponette Kim
Boston University News Service
Harnessed to the FitRec climbing wall, Boston University College of Communication sophomore Taylor Coester glides downward, her movements as fluid as if she were bounding across a stage and not hanging 20 feet in midair.
Coester was one of two dancers harnessed to the climbing wall during the final performance of Boston University’s Dance Theatre Group during their annual Motion Art Showcase on March 31. The event was hosted in the FitRec, consisting of performances from various performing arts groups on campus. Featured groups included BU on Tap, The Dear Abbeys, Chankaar, Forte and more.
“It was scary — I haven’t rock climbed since I was little,” Coester said. “We had two to three hours total on the wall [to practice].”
The whole performance only lasted a few minutes but seemed longer due to the daring nature.
DTG is a demanding extracurricular, with members putting in up to 10 hours of practice before major competitions or showcases. With a competition in New Hampshire the week before, Coester, who serves as DTG’s social media chair, has been putting in several extra hours with rehearsals and her DTG e-board duties.
“I got involved with [DTG] from the get-go [during] freshman year,” Coester said. “I’ve taken on more of a role in it and we’ve been doing a lot for that lately, it’s probably been closer to 12 to 14 hours a week.”
Rehearsal times have been longer due to the showcase. While Motion Art is an annual event, this year’s showcase was in-person for the first time since the pandemic.
DTG Vice President Ally Tellstone, a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences, was the brainpower behind this year’s Motion Art Showcase.
“I reached out to the groups and figured out what groups we even wanted,” Tellstone said. “It was really fun to find all the little corners of FitRec we could put people into and how it was going to work and how they were going to interact with the space.”
Dancers and performers were stationed across FitRec, with the first group, BU on Tap, performing next to the FitRec entrance. From there, groups were positioned on the squash courts, dance theatre and in front of the rock wall. Performances ranged from a solo hula dance to a capella.
Director of Dance Micki Taylor-Pinney, the faculty advisor for DTG, didn’t intervene much with the planning process but was present for the event itself.
“I thought it was terrific that they had a few more ethnic groups participating,” Taylor-Pinney said. “That was a first for us.”
When asked about her favorite number, Tellstone answered that the climbing wall piece was her favorite because of its originality.
“I really like the e-board improv that we did on the rock wall, it was very special to us,” Tellstone said. “It was all on our own — we didn’t have any help from Micki or any of our faculty advisors.”
