It's Love and Dance "At Last"

“At last / My love has come along / My lonely days are over / And life is like a song.”

You’ve heard the lyrics before, but never like this. The love song made famous by Etta James serves as the frame for “At Last,” a theatrical dance show that will run in the Loeb Ex from May 2-4. The production is the result of a unique collaboration between choreographer and director Hazel A. Lever ’13 and composer Danielle G. Rabinowitz ’14.

Dance is at the forefront in “At Last,” but the production is lent an additional layer of complexity by its plot. The dances in the production chronicle the evolving relationships of four different couples. In between dances, vocalist Page Axelson, a junior at Reading Memorial High School, sings differing versions of “At Last” that speak to the particular nature of the couples’ stories.

“The show tries to grapple with all of the different forms of intimacy,” Lever says.

“I think it’s a really cool way to use dance, that I’m not sure a lot of people have seen before,” dancer Talia M. Fox ’13 says. “The content is easy to relate to…. It deals with emotions and things that people have to confront every day in their relationships.”

Indeed, audience members will have to confront the dancers, as the attendees are invited to move throughout the theater and view the dances from a variety of angles. Fox hopes that this will allow audience members to create their own experience of the show.

Producer Alexandra M. Kiley ’15 believes one of the production’s strong points is its confluence of multiple art forms.

“It does a very good job of connecting the theater and dance communities,” Kiley says.

Rabinowitz echoes Kiley’s sentiment. “It’s a marriage of all things awesome.”

—Staff writer Emma R. Adler can be reached at emmaadler@college.harvard.edu.