Ishmael Konney will perform a solo entitled “Sacred Paths” at the MFA concert March 3-5. Pictured: Ishmael Konney. Credit: Courtesy of Ishmael Konney.
Isaiah Harris, a master’s student in dance, will present his master’s thesis alongside smaller projects from other Master in Fine Arts candidates Thursday through Saturday.
Ohio State’s dance MFA program is a three-year academic track culminating in a final choreographed thesis. This year, Harris is the only third-year presenting his thesis in the traditional concert form, as others chose to present in other mediums such as in film. To bulk up the concert, other MFA candidates were invited to perform in the show with Harris.
Harris said his thesis, “The Sacred, the Secular, and the Science,” is a way for him to intertwine the three most important parts of his world: spirituality, social life and science.
“Science can be art and art can be science,” Harris said. “Dance is on its way, if not from me, but can be used as medicine. And the sacred and the secular can coexist in the same body and in the same space without offending either sphere.”
Harris said his choreography process led him to discover what being a Black man in America means to him. He pulled in pieces from different parts of his life, such as his spirituality growing up, his first academic passion — science — and his journey with spirituality during his time at SUNY Brockport as an undergraduate, he said.
“Getting a chance to figure out who I am as a Black man in America is something that’s constantly swirling in my head. Like, what does that mean? Can it change? Does it change? Yes,” Harris said. “And getting a chance to kind of go back to my roots and see what my ancestral ties to spirituality are, it was really cool and also felt like a kind of excavation of my history.”
As a choreographer, Harris said choosing the dancers who would perform in his thesis was a strategic decision based on the themes of the dance.
“Looking at my research and seeing how Black bodies engaged with Black dance and seeing how dance can be used as medicine for the Black community, I chose my dancers from that,” Harris said. “And then really seeing how they moved in those movement techniques informed who I chose and decided to keep.”
Katie O’Loughlin, a master’s student in dance, said although the concert’s primary focus is to spotlight Harris’ thesis, it will also present an opportunity for other students to showcase work they may not have performed otherwise.
“I’d say the main goal is a space for Isaiah to present his work and invite audience members in,” O’Loughlin said. “But then, alongside that, it’s a space for us grad students to show work that might not be seen right now.”
Some graduate students are using this opportunity to help them develop their future theses, Ishmael Konney, a master’s student in dance, said.
“This is actually like a stepping stone, which is building up to my final project, which will actually unleash all the other things — or the other features — that I wish to explore,” Konney said.
Harris said his thesis piece is a 15-minute long production, which is not unusual in the dance world, but can be a challenge to create. He said the process not only challenged him as a choreographer, but as a dancer, artist and leader.
“It challenges me as someone who makes similar work and is pulling from different places and inspired by different choreographers whose work exists within the spectrum of the African diaspora,” Harris said. “I think just putting this on and organizing eight bodies all in one space with different schedules and different times and different mastery of movements that come out of the diaspora has been something.”
The MFA concert will take place in the Barnett Theatre in Sullivant Hall from 8-9:30 p.m. Tickets are free and can be reserved on the dance department’s website. Masks will be required in accordance with university guidelines.
