Five minutes may not seem like a significant performance, but for undergraduate world arts and cultures students, that time is coveted. These students rarely receive the opportunity to express themselves in an official setting, but WACSMASH gives these students their moment of fame.
From April 17 to April 20, the World Arts and Cultures Undergraduate Society will present the eighth annual WACSMASH, a compilation of works that are directed and performed by undergraduates. This year’s program features dance, performance art and spoken word. It incorporates a range of cultural influences, including hybrids such as tribal fusion belly-dancing, house-jazz and indie-rock.
Lindsay Ducos, a fourth-year world arts and cultures student and the show’s co-producer, emphasized that the show’s incorporation of spoken word and song, in addition to dance, was a conscious decision on her part.
“There’s been a little confusion as to what our major is trying to highlight: dance predominantly, or world arts and cultures,” she said. Ducos added that because students interested in cultural studies felt “a little left out,” the upcoming shows would incorporate more mediums.
“This year’s show wanted to be about bringing the major back, because … in previous years it had more of the same types of people in it, whereas this year it is truly diverse.”
According to Ducos, diversity and youthful experimentation within different types of performance distinguish WACSMASH from mature graduate-level work, which tends to focus on one particular style.
“The reason why people come back every year is because they’re looking to see what younger work is produced,” she said.
“The older graduate work is consistently the same within each type of category, so much that it’s monotonous … whereas our pieces are limited to five minutes each. … You’re only really getting a snippet of this choreographer’s interests.”
While a five-minute slot may seem inadequate to truly develop a piece, it is the only occasion where world arts and cultures students can present their compositions to the general public because their major rarely offers other opportunities.
“Within the program there’s a lot of opportunity for choreography, but at the same time, there’s not many opportunities to showcase it, so it feels really good to finally be able to showcase a piece in its entirety,” said Marina Magalhães, second-year world arts and cultures student and choreographer.
At the performance, Magalhães will present her insights on the subject of the male gaze, an interest generated by her women’s studies minor.
“We play a lot with the male gaze as it is defined by a cardboard cutout and as it is defined by the audience, and halfway through the dance we discard the male cardboard cutout and try to explore women’s sexuality in terms of the female dancers,” she said.
Given that WACSMASH provides artists with the rare opportunity to perform, competition for entry is naturally intense.
“It’s always the one thing that everyone wants to do,” said Sally Omar, a fourth-year world arts and cultures student and co-producer of WACSMASH. “When they don’t get in, it’s like devastating because it’s a very small department, and everyone knows.”
Magalhães described her audition as nerve-wracking because she felt uncertain of her ability to express a topic that engaged her.
“It’s hard to articulate something that you’re really interested in and that you have so many different thoughts about,” she said.
In order to make the auditioning process as fair as possible, artists are selected by a panel composed of faculty members and graduate students in addition to Ducos and Omar. Once selected, artists are not allowed to present their work in its original state. Instead, they must seek out advisers from graduate students and faculty members, who repeatedly critique their work.
“That adviser had to watch their piece at least three times throughout the process and give feedback about their work,” Omar said.
The ethic of constant self-improvement derives from the efforts of the world arts and cultures department to challenge the common assumption that art is self-indulgent and merely for entertainment value. Instead, world arts and cultures students propose art as a vehicle for changing the world because it communicates more effectively than most other mediums.
“If you look at anything political or anything that’s been contested … it’s easier to understand something … if it’s not given to you in a pdf file.” Omar said.
“(WACSMASH is) way more of a process rather than just “˜I’m going to make this piece and this is what I’m doing, and I’ve had this idea for like seven years.’ The department is really like, “˜What are you trying to say with your work? And if you’re not trying to say anything, then don’t say anything.'”