ERIC M. JUKELEVICS/Arizona Daily Wildcat Dance freshman Ryan Lawrence is passed around by other dancers performing in "My Song Turns to Word In Your Fists," a piece co-created and conducted by Bruce Taylor and John Altieri, which will be performed Saturday at the Marroney Theatre. The piece is a collaboration of students from the University of Arizona's Schools of Art, Music and Drama.

UA art schools explore emotions through song, music and dance

Relationships, chaotic times and self-discovery - most college students are familiar with at least one of these life experiences. To some people, these are just periods one must survive. To one group of UA students, however, they represent much more than that.

Dozens of students from the University of Arizona's Schools of Art, Music and Drama have created an artistic production that expresses the myriad emotions brought on by the discovery of self and sexuality, through song, music and dance.

The piece, titled "My Song Turns to Word In Your Fists," will be performed Saturday at 8 p.m. in the Marroney Theatre and is free to the public.

Co-creators and conductors Bruce Taylor and John Altieri have been working on the idea since May 2001.

Taylor, a doctoral candidate in conducting, is using the production as the final project for his degree. He pointed out that one of the factors that make this event unique is that it is a collaboration between three UA schools, which rarely have the chance to work together.

"It's a great showcase of a wide variety of talent - a sampling of all three departments at one time," Taylor said. "The style of the piece is modern but with hints of many other things. Everyone is bringing their own stories into it."

The production is run entirely by volunteer students, from the dancers and composers to the theater and lighting crew. It features original music, including Altieri's eponymous "My Song Turns to Word in Your Fists," as well as music by Aaron Copland and James Chaudoir.

"It's a very eclectic sound world," Altieri said. "It pulls from punk, classical, abstract, and contemporary; sometimes there are very simple textures, sometimes very complicated ones."

In addition to presenting diverse aural pleasures, the production features expressive, emotionally driven choreography.

"We're all different people taking charge of an empty canvas," said Claire Hancock, co-choreographer. "There seems to be a common thread weaving it all together. It's a story, a struggle - any struggle within a person. It's been very experimental and improvisational at times.

"I'm using it as a choreographic project of mine; it's kind of a thing I've been wanting to challenge myself with. This is not music that I'd typically choreograph to, and that has stretched me," she said.

Because the performers come from different university departments and bring their own varied thoughts, feelings and experiences, the creators of the work said the piece as a whole reflects the contributions of each person involved.

"It's been fun for me to see the dancers find a gesture that, to them, expresses the meaning (of the work)," Altieri said. "It's exciting to have others find a piece of themselves in something you've created."

Altieri likened the experience of the show's protagonists to that of its creators.

"It's interesting because through these 23 minutes, we try to express the idea of a journey and self-discovery - the process that one goes through in adolescence and beyond," he said. "That's an interesting perspective to bring."