HRMDC’s Show ‘50’ Celebrates 50 Years of Creativity, Change, and Community

Earlier this year, Joy E. An ’27 and Alexa M. Fein ’28 — the co-directors of Harvard-Radcliffe Modern Dance Company — received a message from the HRMDC email account alerting them that this year is the company’s 50th anniversary. This was a pre-scheduled message from the past directors of HRMDC, and it catalyzed the creation of a performance that integrated the history of the company and the present.

On April 24 and 25, HRMDC presented “50” in the Harvard Dance Center. For each piece, the choreographers selected a theme from a previous HRMDC show and reimagined it. The creative process for the show’s choreography encouraged reflection and creativity, as each choreographer adapted their theme in a unique way.

Choreographer Katy E. Nairn ’26 was inspired by the company’s culture in its founding year of 1976. Her song choice — “Rhiannon” by Fleetwood Mac — was released in 1976, and the dance moves she choreographed were inspired by the feminist movement of the ’70s. For Nairn, her piece was an opportunity to reflect on how the company has changed throughout the past several years.

“[I’ve] seen new things come and go. When [I] started, a lot of the pieces were lyrical contemporary. Last semester, we had a very musical theater, jazz number, and then this semester we have a dance on pointe that I’m dancing in with another dancer, Anna, who’s one of the tech producers,”said Nairn in an interview with the Crimson. “So I think just [the company has been] expanding into different styles and different ways of being creative, for sure, and then looking back at previous shows, I’m struck by the amount of different themes that we’ve had and how different groups of choreographers have worked together.”

Co-director An looked forward to how the company may develop in the future, emphasizing that this constant change will continue.

“My hope is that if I were to come back to the show — which I will — in 10, 20 years, I would see something just so beyond anything that I could have ever imagined. I think the trajectory of dance is one that is constantly innovating. People are always finding new ways to push boundaries and finding new ways to move their bodies and new shapes that they can make. My hope is that anything that I could predict now would be wrong, and that I would come back in 20 years, and it would be something I could have never dreamed of,” said An in an interview with the Harvard Crimson.

Alumni Choreographer Pearl Bhatnagar ’14 shared that this encouragement to create novel performances impacted her past graduation.

“During my time with the Harvard-Radcliffe Modern Dance Company, my collaborators and I were able to experiment with different methodologies for choreographing, co-advising, and creating art that meant something to us, and connected our community. I have used those tools throughout my work as an artist, and those tools are foundational and help me build upon the toolbox that I have in my current practice,” said Bhatnagar in an interview with the Crimson.

Throughout this evolution, one factor remained constant: the community. Alumni who had preserved pictures and pamphlets from their time in HRMDC donated them to the company for the anniversary performance. A large lobby display at the Harvard Dance Center presented these memories from the past 50 years. When asked to describe HRMDC, An called it her “home here at Harvard.”

“This company is filled with so many wonderful people. A really special thing about our company is that we’re no cut, and so we welcome people from all kinds of different dance backgrounds. We have people here who have been dancing since they came out of the womb and [others] who started dancing at Harvard. And I think that’s such a beautiful and wonderful thing to have,” said An.

Co-director Fein expanded upon this point, wishing to share HRMDC’s warmth with the audience.

“I hope that for the audience, [the show] is an escape from their everyday thoughts, even everyday hopes. I hope it’s an escape for them to be able to just enjoy what they’re seeing on stage and be inspired by it. I hope it brings them as much joy as it has brought all of us, as we’ve been in the process of creating it. Because that’s what it’s been for me — an escape from classwork, everyday thoughts, it’s always just a space to get away from my own head and just be in a happy space. I hope that’s what it is for the audience too,” said Fein in an interview with the Crimson.

HRMDC plans to preserve this community and culture of innovation, in addition to pre-scheduling an email alerting future directors of the company’s 60th anniversary.

—Staff writer Shira Parnes can be reached at [email protected].