Another Language Performing Arts Company

Elizabeth A. Miklavcic - Choreographic Works

One Door Down Rehearsal - August 1986

One Door Down (1986)

Choreographers: Elizabeth A. Miklavcic, Daniel Killpack
Music: (No Music)
Set Design & Construction: Jimmy H. Miklavcic
Dancers: Elizabeth A. Miklavcic, Daniel Killpack
Location: Westgate Fine Arts Center, 342 West 200 South, Salt Lake City, Utah
Length: 11:32 minutes

Description
Jimmy Miklavcic had just finished constructing the stand alone set that was a recreation of a cabinet located at the end of a long hall in the old dance building at the University of Utah. The old dance building has since been torn down and the new Alice Sheets Marriott Center for Dance was built in 1989. Elizabeth Miklavcic and Daniel Killpack developed this dance in a cabinet for an improvisational class taught by Shirley Ririe in 1986. The challenge for the concert As Our Thoughts Escape Us was to take the cabinet and recreate it for the proscenium stage.

Once it was decided to focus on the make-believe world of two child like figures at play in a "secret place," the colors of pink and white were painted on the particle board set. Eventually the set was decorated with brightly colored shapes, as if it was the inside of a toy box. It had to be painted before the first rehearsal, because the surface was splintery.

This recording was taken at the end of the first rehearsal as Elizabeth and Daniel recalled much of the movements from the improv and set a structure for this version of the work. Carrying the "toy box" idea further, they added the elements of incorporating toy props into the choreography. Daniel had volunteered to create a sound collage for the dance. The title One Door Down also indicated that these two characters/children could be next door neighbors who played together often, engaging in their fantasy world of make-believe and dreams.