This piece proved that love doesn’t have to be a battlefield. If anything, you always have the ability to pleasure yourself.

Dueling personalities, dating problems and women reaching climax.

Under the artistic direction of University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee dance professor, Luc Vanier, a handful of UWM dance majors presented a variety of self-choreographed works in Mitchell Hall this past December.

The show began with a work by senior dance major Juliann Engum. As four female dancers pranced around stage to a driving pop tune, my stomach churned and I began to worry that the remainder of the show may be chalk-full of fluffy dance works such as this.

The four girls dressed in bright pastels and carrying matching cell phones resembled the four stars from the TV show, “Sex and the City”. I expected to see this commercial style of work at the Bradley Center, but not in the theatre of a university dance program. Thankfully, I was relieved halfway through the piece when the music changed and an underlying message of the piece became evident.

Though these bubbly dancers seemed all smiles at the beginning of the piece, the mood quickly shifted. Each dancer began telling a story about how they wished it was easier to date men. As they talked over each other a dramatic, hypnotic music played and each dancer sadly sank into different places on the stage.

As they spoke, words filled with worry, fear and frustration came out. I heard one dancer say, “Why does love seem like such a battlefield?” This was the statement that inspired many of the works presented throughout the night’s performance.

Carving, arching and other expressive modern dance movements erupted out of Sarah Nesler’s dance piece that came second in the program. I enjoyed this piece very much because of the classical piano music that accompanied the work.

I also liked the overall choreography. Nesler used signature motives beautifully throughout her work; for example, at one point, two dancers held another dancer up into a cocoon shape.

Her ensemble, dressed in black, performed a dynamic sequence in-sync toward the end of the piece. It seemed as if they were working together to find an end to this complex work.

My favorite piece of the night came from Sarah Bromann.

Her two male dancers, Ben Follensbee and Dylan Baker, exhibited incredible stamina and performed amazing gymnastics throughout her incredible four minute work. Both male dancers acted as two different personalities fighting to become one.

Bromann’s choreography looked very challenging and her staging featured both dancers dashing around the stage constantly. To top it off, Bromann used a pounding techno song to accompany her driving work.

The rhythms in her music choice were addictive to the ear. The final moment of her piece had both dancers standing very close, furious and shaking their heads at each other as the lights went black.

I was very impressed by Bromann’s work and have no doubt that she will become successful with her future endeavors in the dance world. I also commend Follensbee and Baker for their strong performances in her work.

Other notable performances of the night came from the works of Amanda Magtanong and Megan Zintek. Magtanong’s piece featured two female dancers performing innovative, modern choreography to a melodramatic Imogen Heap tune. Magtanong did a nice job of pairing the music and choreography together.

Zintek’s piece was based on the art of the female orgasm. Zintek’s work was cute and she presented it in a way that didn’t pass into pornographic territory.

It looked like Zintek’s dancers had raided the local “Victoria’s Secret” to find the costuming for the piece. This work proved that love doesn’t have to be a battlefield—if anything, you always have the ability to pleasure yourself.

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