If you were anywhere in the Hopkins Center last Thursday before the "Igniting Unity" show in Spaulding Auditorium, you would have witnessed a certain brand of controlled chaos. Through the window of one room, sounds blared as the Barbary Coast Jazz Ensemble swayed and grooved to its music. In another rehearsal space, the Wind Ensemble tuned their instrument. In yet another, an a capella group warmed up. Singers in sparkling metallic dresses and performers in black and neon colors bustled around the corridors.
To an onlooker, these performers, musicians and artists seemed to be preparing for separate shows, but in fact they were all set to join in "Igniting Unity: A Campus Comes Together Through the Arts," directed by Gospel Choir director Walt Cunningham. The show was co-produced by Joshua Price Kol '93, the Hop programming director.
The show was created after a similar collaborative event staged last year, "Igniting Imagination," received an overwhelming positive reaction.
"The anniversary show was probably the first time that we did an event that had so many different elements of the artistic community," Cunningham said. "Everyone loved it and the students were really involved in it and everyone just said, Wow, wow, wow.' One of the things everyone asked is can we have something like this happen in other years."
"Igniting Unity" was born out of a desire to continue this collaboration among the members of the arts community. Over 150 performers participated through dance and song that ran the spectrum of the arts, including members of the Dartmouth Symphony Orchestra, Barbary Coast Jazz Ensemble, Wind Ensemble, Glee Club, Gospel Choir, dance ensembles, a cappella groups and soloists including Mike Tree '13, Talene Monahon '13 and Nathaniel Graves '13. Olivia Scott '13 and Corey Vann '13 hosted the show.
Events as inclusive as this one help create a sense of community, said Natalia Drozdoff '17, a member of the Wind Ensemble.
"You don't often see a combination of music like this where they're bringing together all these different groups," Drozdoff said. "Usually a wind ensemble doesn't perform with pop act. It's a cool chance to play music together. The whole idea of inclusivity is very nice as a '17." Cunningham said these events help create dialogue that is even more important because of Dartmouth's size.
"Anything we can do that gives people the opportunity to really be able to interact with one another and have an exchange in a place that's safe is what we should be doing," Cunningham said. "It's an opportunity for folks to come together in one show and have an interaction that I think is so important."
During the conception of the show, Cunningham, aware of issues on campus surrounding diversity, decided to give continuity to the event by exploring cultural and social differences and issues through the arts.
"Toward the end of the year, we had some challenges around different diversity issues and different ethnic groups," Cunningham said. "I thought, why not have an event that talks about social topics and social justice? Why not have an event that doesn't necessarily go the route of preaching, but would cause someone to sit there and just think about it and to be introspective."
The show featured acts like "Not So Typical Audition," written by Maia Matsushita '13, and an adaptation of "Not Getting Married" by Stephen Sondheim that addressed issues of racism and sexuality. Other performances called for acceptance and appreciation of all people from different social and cultural backgrounds.
"The music in this show, so many people can get into it and it doesn't feel exclusive and everyone takes their gifts and uses them to the fullest and tries to develop them even more," soloist Xavier Curry '14 said. "It's so convenient that that ties so well into unity and being able to put on a show like this shows the unity that music can create."
Cunningham said that artistic creation often prevails over individual perceptions of issues such as race and sexuality.
"Think about two little kids playing in a sandbox," Cunningham said. "If they both want to play with the same toy, they don't really care whether one's Asian or one's black or one's short or one's tall. They just focus on the fact that they both want to play with the toy. Artists, musicians, performers, when they come together with the full purpose of let's put together the best artistic presentation, that makes people less concerned with those attributes that quite frankly have nothing to do with your ability to do art."
Cunningham's musical gifts and passion has inspired many of the performers of "Igniting Unity."
"The great thing about Cunningham is he knows so many people and is a link between all the different groups on campus," Curry said. "That allows him to bring together all these people who end up not being able to celebrate each other as much as they want to. A show like this allows everyone to show the beauty of what they do and to celebrate everyone else work. It's just a blessing to have Cunningham here to do that."
