BWW Preview: Columbus Moving Company's MIXTAPE to Display Modern Love

Music is the soundtrack of our lives, and becomes especially personal when encapsulated in a mixtape. It measures where we've been and where we'd like to go, telling a story.

Columbus Moving Company will tell a young woman's story through dance in its production of Mixtape this weekend.

Featuring songs from Teagan and Sara, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Peaches, The Postal Service, Ani DiFranco and others, Mixtape is a modern love story which follows a woman who experiences conflict in her first love in a woman compared to the man she's settled down with.

The show will feature three main dancers out of the 11 total, known as simply "The Woman," portrayed by Gabby Stefura, "The Man," portrayed by Jeff Fouch and "The Lover," portrayed by Elaine Berman.

In keeping with its goal of doing frequent collaborations, the company worked with Scott Hunt of Dayton's Human Race Theatre Company, tailoring his concept to fit CMCo. Maggie Abrams, one of the founding members of CMCo, put together the soundtrack described as early 2000's lesbian punk to fit the storyline.

While choreographers such as Matthew Bourne have adapted existing dance pieces to fit LGBT love stories, Noah Rogers, associate producer for CMCo, noted a void of new pieces representing them, one which Mixtape fills.

"There aren't a lot of new coined ballets, that they're like 'this is a gay ballet' or 'this is a lesbian ballet,'" he says. "We have lots of members who are gay and lesbian or bi or very strong allies in CMCo so I think it was important to all of us to tell that story."

The Choreography of Mixtape was a collective effort with company members working individually on their songs and incorporating improvisation to fill the 11-song, close to one-hour show.

"We're telling the same story, but we're allowing our own choreographic and movement voices to come through in each piece. It'll be really interesting to see how they are side to side, because although there are the same dancers in each piece, the voice of the movement is going to be drastically different," says Jeff Fouch, artistic director of CMCo.

Fouch's piece, set to "Blister in the Sun" by Violent Femmes, closes the first act, when the lead female character comes to a crossroad. During the piece, she is to be listening to the cassette player intently while behind her the dancers embody her different emotional states.

"When those emotional states commingle, you get that kind of chaotic but excited and joyous feeling, even though there's sadness perhaps in it too and some uncertainty," he says.

It's a song Foust chose from the list for a personal reason. It will serve as a tribute of sorts to his high school friend whose band would frequently play the song and has since passed.

"When I think about that song and I think about my friend it just reminds me of how vibrant and how warm and hilarious she was in life," Fouch said.

Rogers says that the company has gotten a strong and positive response from the lesbian community in reaction to Mixtape's themes.

"People feel very supported like we're doing the piece about them, for them and we definitely are. And we're doing it for us, too," he says.

But the story is about more than sexuality, and the themes are universal.

"What I hope that the audience takes away from it is the idea that love is love," Foust says." "It is not something that we choose, it's something that is by nature, a part of us and when we connect with another person it doesn't matter what their gender is, it doesn't matter what they look like, what they weigh. It's what the connection is."

Performances of Mixtape are scheduled for 8 p.m. on Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. on Sunday at the Garden Theater, 1187 N. High St. The show will last roughly 1 hour, including an intermission. Tickets are $15. For more information, visit shortnorthstage.org.

Photos courtesy of Noah Rogers.

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