Spring Dance Project Performance Sets Memory in Motion
In a darkened dance studio, five sheer circular drapes hung from the ceiling. Inside each stood a dancer—some crouching low, others upright and still—waiting to emerge. As warm light illuminated each figure, the fabric lifted to reveal the performers one by one. The opening moments of Kinetic Echoes drew audiences into a world shaped by memory, movement, and emotion.
Directed by Patrick John O’Neill, Kinetic Echoes ran May 15–16, 2026, featuring choreography by O’Neill and members of the CA Dance Project: Bella Li ’27, Eva Peregudov ’28, Jenny Wang ’27, Foster Woodberry ’27, and Sophia Zhou ’26.
The piece explored how the mind holds onto the past, inspired by O’Neill’s personal experiences. “I was moved by watching the impact of my grandmother’s memory loss on my family,” he said. “I found myself asking two questions: ‘What happens to me when I forget?’ and ‘What happens to me if I can’t forget?’ Life is a constant balance of the things we want to cherish forever and the moments we wish we could let go of.”
O’Neill invited the dancers to contribute directly to the choreography. To encourage experimentation, O’Neill created a judgment-free environment, reminding students that there are no bad ideas. He then asked them to translate a cherished memory into dance, guiding the process through questions and feedback. “As we weaved different dancers’ phrases together, they were forced to physically ‘remember’ complex transitions and sequences in real-time,” he said.
Although each student choreographed an individual section, recurring motifs created a strong sense of unity throughout the contemporary dance piece. Gestures such as lifts or reclining spirals reappeared with slight variations, echoing the fluid nature of recollection.
That sense of repetition also extended to the production’s visual staging. Scenic designer Jessica Cloutier-Plasse and technical director James Williston P’28 created the draped environment inspired by the set from met·a·mor·pho·sis, the first CA Dance Project show O’Neill choreographed at CA in November of 2024.
The score featured haunting ambient music, including original tracks by digital music production teacher Nate Tucker. Eytan Ko ’26 also contributed an original improvised composition created entirely through memory and musical intuition. Lighting by Elmer Martinez transformed the dance studio into a hazy landscape of shadows and warmth, alternately obscuring and sharply revealing movement. Together, these technical elements evoked the fragmented atmosphere of memory.
For O’Neill, the power of dance lies in creating a shared experience that lingers in the mind and body long after the movement itself disappears. “I wanted the audience to feel the tangible weight of memories that are usually purely internal,” he shares. “I hope they saw fragments of their own journeys in the dancers. No matter their personal history, I want them to leave feeling just a little bit closer to themselves than they were before the performance began.”
