Mainstage Dance

Choreographer: Kimberley Cooper

Restaged by/Rehearsal Director: Morgan Dubay

Music: “Ishmael”- Abdula Ibrahim, “Unonkanyamba”- Nduduzo Makhathini

Dancers: Shaina Jean-Baptiste, Kyrie Catolico, M’Kayla Kongnetiman, Hana Reichel, Kiki Roberts, Maia Stothert , Madi Stuwe, Jasmine Sun, Elena Toth

Understudy: Christine Lucko

Choreographers note: Ophelia was created for Salve Regina University’s Dance Dept. (Newport, R.I. USA) in the fall of 2023 between tropical storms Lee and Ophelia.  Many thanks to Salve, Lindsay Guarino, the original cast; Livia Armstrong, Morgan Dubay, Claire Powell, Trinity Leite, Elisabeth Muller, Julia Paulo, Jala Settles, Taylor Steeves, Natalia Taborga. With Lexi Callaghan and Sara Green. 

Direction: Marie France Forcier

Movement Generation: Marie France Forcier with the cast

Costume Design: Marie France Forcier

Lighting Design: Matt Levesque 

Descriptions: ORDER OF SERVICE: Welcome and Opening Remarks/ Prayer and Reflection/ Eulogy/ Hymn/ Scripture Reading/ Personal Tributes/ Moment of Silence/ Funeral Message/ Closing Hymn

Cast:  Jaidyn Bloemraad, Jo Dickau-Duguay, Abigail Fernendes, Kiauna Harder, Riley Holroyd, Kalyna Howell-Matwichuk, Tess Knoll, Morgan Lawrence, Hazel Lewis, Gracie Mills, Toby Newell, Anika Nocera, Anna-Karina Opdahl, Gabi Rybar, Caitlin Towers, Lavender Wong    
 
Sound: 
Volga, Volga mat'rodnaya (Feodor Chaliapin), 
Nabucco (Verdi)
The Carnival is Over (versions by Maxence Cyrin, Terry Kindle Figuera, Prussia, Marina Prior, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, The Seekers, Dead Can Dance, Francis Moore Orchestra) 

Special thanks to the cast members for their flexibility (physical and otherwise) during this process.

Created by Barbara England, in collaboration with the dancers: Avery Graham-Wiseman, Elexie Tracy, Jenna Wadden, Jordana Suitor, Olivia Carmelo, Sophia Frenette, Teanne Couture

Music: Sinfonia for Strings in C Major, RV 112: II. Andante (Antonio Vivaldi, Budapest Strings, Bela Banfalvi)

Natalia in E-Flat Major (Marc Ribot)

75 beats per minute (Romain)

The Substance (Raffertie)

Desolation (Nymesys)

Intermezzo No.2 in B-Flat Minor, Op.117 (Johannes Brahms, Glenn Gould)

Script: Barbara in collaboration with the dancers and Alexa Generation 3

Voiceover: Alexa Generation 3

Program Notes

This piece weaves together the raw history of hysteria and the evolving presence of AI to examine how far society has come in understanding women’s health. Through movement, it interrogates the lingering biases that persist in both medical and social contexts, questioning whether the systems that shape our perceptions have evolved – or merely been reprogrammed. 

“Hysteria”: A now-discredited medical diagnosis, historically applied to women, describing excessive or uncontrollable emotions or physical symptoms without an identifiable physical cause. The term has been criticized for its historical use to dismiss or control women's emotions and behaviors. 

“Artificial Intelligence”: AI models, such as Chat GPT and Alexa, retrieve information from large, publicly available datasets. AI undergoes “reinforcement learning from human feedback” (RLHF), where humans help refine responses in real-time, to make them more useful and accurate. 

Thanks

A special thank you to Mark Hopkins for being an outside eye and A+ friend. Much gratitude to the dancers who showed up with curiosity, enthusiasm, and thoughtfulness throughout this process.