Dancing Through History: Campus Building in the Spotlight
A progressive dance concert will take audience members through the Goodyear Building. Photo by A. Pierce Bounds '71.
Production brings Goodyear's Over 130-year story to life
by MaryAlice Bitts-Jackson
Dickinson’s Goodyear Building has seen many changes since its construction over 130 years ago. Beginning Friday, Nov. 22, a progressive dance concert by the Dance Theatre Group (DTG) will take audience members through that history-drenched space to explore its past and present lives. The fall concert, Assembly:Required, will be presented in and throughout the Goodyear Building (595 West Louther Street) Nov. 22, 23 and 24.
The three story brick structure was built in 1891 for the Lindner Shoe Company, at one time employing 900 workers across three shifts. When Lindner Shoe fell on hard times in 1922, the Bedford Shoe Company’s Alonzo Bedford and William Goodyear snapped up the building and all of its modern machinery. Goodyear stayed on to lead the company for years after Bedford’s retirement. And when the G.R. Kinney Corporation purchased the building in 1963 to store extra goods, the building was dubbed the “Goodyear warehouse.”
Dickinson purchased the building in 1979 as a storage facility that also housed the college’s physical plant. Eventually, the college moved its plant to Orange Street and began extensive renovations at Goodyear. In 2001, the building reopened, this time boasting 32 residential rooms for students, studio spaces, studio-art classrooms and meeting spaces—and a history-minded, industrial-chic vibe.
Twenty-nine student dancers have partnered with 20 art & art history students to evoke this story of industry and revival, under direction by Erin Crawley-Woods, lecturer in dance. The concert will feature original music by Dylan Glatthorn and costumes, scenery and lighting by Dickinson creatives.
The production's two guest-choreographers, Colette Krogol and Matt Reeves of Orange Grove Dance, call for audience members to imagine the “countless hands and energies that have shaped this space" as they progress through it. “Through the movement of the dancers and audience, we are able to pass through these memories and create new imprints on the building together,” the choreographers add.
Showtimes are Nov. 22 and 23 at 7 and 9 p.m. and Nov. 24 at 7 p.m. Tickets are donation based, starting at $5. Audiences will be standing and walking, including up two flights of stairs.
TAKE THE NEXT STEPS
Published November 19, 2024