Flight of Fancy

Lydia Dunn, ElleAnna Casterline, Olivia Johnson, Sarah Madnick, Abby Niemi, and Arianna Stadler – School of Music, Theatre & Dance

Flight of Fancy is the senior capstone project of dance majors ElleAnna Casterline, Lydia Dunn, Olivia Johnson, Sarah Madnick, Abby Niemi, and Arianna Stadler. After a dark year, we are thrilled to be back creating, yet utterly transformed. In light of this, we want to create an escape from reality into a world of fantasy through a dance concert where we will each present solo and group choreography.

ElleAnna Casterline is curating works portraying the dichotomy between vulnerability and isolation through empowerment of the internal self and deception of the external. Her work highlights collaborations between screen dance, music production, and performance, demonstrating the multifaceted experience of mental and emotional awareness.

Arianna Stadler is exploring the naivety of young love and the excitement of possibility juxtaposed with a mature disillusioned relationship through use of music and set design.

Lydia Dunn is using her Philosophy, Politics, and Economics skills to research historical spaces of escapism and reimagine them as open and accessible.

Sarah Madnick will focus on the feeling of misplacement due to the dynamics of returning to your childhood home after moving away.

Abby Niemi is preaching self-love, confidence, and empowerment through upbeat and sensual choreography.

Olivia Johnson showcases how addiction creates tension in a family and thrives through fakery. Their set and storytelling allude to cinema and music, structured within a set of live flower arrangements. For their solo, musicians will help create a scored but improvisatory jam session.

In Flight of Fancy, diverse disciplines combine and flourish. We are working with Lecturer Mary Cole as our lighting designer and production manager, as well as student musicians, dancers, costume designers, and videographers. The process involves music production, dance curation and dramaturgy, set, lighting, and costume design, videography, music performance, photography, and writing. As a team, we are curating costumes and locations to create a feeling of fantasy in our poster (captured by local photographer, Julio Wagner). Although the show is dance-focused, the lighting, technical crew, audio, and video elements make the dance exciting and approachable to audiences beyond the dance department. We want to reach students who struggle with mental illness since each choreographer idiosyncratically grapples with mental health. This aim will be reinforced by including mental health resources, like CAPS contacts and hotlines, in the show programs.