Amidst white noise and birdsong echo, dancers step into a world where love unfolds like a dream — electric and captivating. “You Got My Heart,” a dance performance debuting at the Cohen New Works Festival on Monday transforms the raw emotions relationships bring into movement and music.
As part of the UT Theatre and Dance program’s week-long Cohen New Works Festival, the three-duet performance explores a relationship’s complexity. As the performance progresses, live video projections and student-composed music walk the audience through a beautiful relationship turned toxic.
“This piece is heavily centered around codependency and finding someone that you rely on so heavily to where they’re like a leech,” said Jose Salcido, a theater and dance junior and the piece’s artistic director.
Salcido said he aimed to blend his technical skills with his appreciation for dance. He said the dream-like visuals reflect the relationship’s evolution — from excitement blossoming to wilting and eventually thawing into the new hope of spring.
“I want to put a lot of technical aspects in it, as if this is a memory, (the viewer) is looking at a memory,” Salcido said. “I don’t want it to feel like real life. I want it to be grounded in life, but not feel real.”
The music is another part of the performance’s dream-like feel. Composer Gabriel Brown, an arts and entertainment technology senior, said the 12 minute composition begins with birds and ends with frogs to suggest a full day period being compressed into the timeline.
Choreographer Katelyn Doyle, an English and dance sophomore, said the duet’s movements reflect the complexities of a relationship, with the music remaining her biggest inspiration.
“A big part of relationships is trust … to translate that to dance lingo is weight sharing,” Doyle said. “What’s the difference between leaning on somebody but you’re very stiff versus giving them your full weight?”
Laila Aranha, a health and society sophomore, dances the second duet where the relationship displays pure tension and animosity.
“There’s a lot of dynamic partnering work, which helps convey the fighting aspect,” Aranha said “It’s more sharp, which helps show the fierceness of our arguments … We have to make sure, even when we’re not touching, we’re still connected through our movement and eye contact.”
Salcido said the Cohen New Works Festival helps students develop their work and pieces to be shown live.
“You can read all about it, hear all about it, but until you see it, you haven’t even seen the final product,” Brown said.
