‘Uncommon Action’ to premiere on Feb. 3 at CNY Jazz
黑料不打烊 music education senior Rachel Dentinger has enlisted聽16 student musicians and a team of production assistants to produce an interdisciplinary program about bullying and ally involvement that has been more than a year and a half in the making. Titled 鈥淯ncommon Action,鈥 Dentinger鈥檚 production is a unique artistic effort where the classical musicians will also perform as dancers while playing. The musical piece, commissioned from Eric Maine (鈥12, music education), tells the story of a student who suffers the effects of being bullied in school and the ally who steps in; Maine based his work on a poem written by Dentinger.
鈥淯ncommon Action鈥 debuts on Feb. 3 at CNY Jazz, 441 E. Washington St. in 黑料不打烊. Performances are at 2 p.m. and 4 p.m., and are free and open to the public. To reserve seats, register at .
Different instruments will represent different 鈥渃haracters鈥 in this聽four-movement original classical piece, with a single cello playing the role of the victim of bullying, and the alto saxophone as the ally. The first half of the performance will have the performers seated, playing in traditional concert dress. However, the second half will see the entire ensemble come alive with movement, lights and colorful costumes. For the larger instruments such as cello, bassoon and tuba, special harnesses had to be engineered to make dance possible.
The performance of 鈥淯ncommon Action鈥 and Dentinger鈥檚 role as artistic director serves as her senior capstone project, a requirement of the Renee Crown University Honors Program. However, Dentinger has been involved in social advocacy work since high school.
鈥淭he focus of this project is on becoming an active ally as an empowered bystander in an instance of bullying, a topic that I am very passionate about as a future educator,鈥 she says. 鈥淚f all goes well with this performance, we would like to perform in middle and high schools in the future.鈥
鈥淯ncommon Action鈥 is sponsored by the Renee Crown University Honors program, the School of Education, College of Visual and Performing Arts and individual donors through Dentinger鈥檚 Kickstarter website. For more information, visit .
