By the time the house lights softened inside the Ailey Studio Theater on the evening of Nov. 13, the room was already alive. The air hummed with anticipation as families and friends filled the aisles. The lights dimmed to an ember and the energy sharpened into stillness. Then, without warning, the curtains parted — and silence became movement.
The Ailey-Fordham Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) Fall Concert, presented Nov. 12 to 14 at the Ailey Studio Theater, brought all four years of undergraduate dancers together in seven works by choreographers Adam Barruch, Tamisha A. Guy, Adrienne Hurd, Vivake Khamsingsavath, Gaspard Louis and Katarzyna Skarpetowska. The program traced a wide emotional range — from modern abstraction and bright, jazz-inflected play to pieces that wrestled with structure, stillness and release.
The concert takes place annually and provides many first-year student dancers with their first official opportunity to showcase their talents.
The precision required, she said, left no room for autopilot.
The night opened with “Search All, Correct All, Clear All,” a brooding contemporary work — precise, sculptural and shadow-cut. What followed shifted the tone entirely: “IN It,” a neon-lit burst of Horton technique with a 1980s flair set to pulsing synths. “Fatal I” slowed the pace to a suspenseful crawl, and its earthy palette and score heightened the tension. “Breaking the Mold” moved like a unit: uniform and synchronized, with each dancer a part of one disciplined mind.
Ella Ratcliffe, FCLC ’26, described “Breaking the Mold” as “one of the most mentally challenging pieces I have been part of.” The precision required, she said, left no room for autopilot.
“I had to actively be aware of my fellow dancers and feel their presence in order to stay within the mold. The intensity (with) which I was focusing left me feeling accomplished after each performance,” she said.
“I felt that when I was performing lots of unison movement I was part of the larger systems that keep people ‘in line’ … but when I had moments of breaking away from the group, I was able to find freedom in myself.” Ella Ratcliffe, FCLC ’26
Ratcliffe connected the work’s tension to her own lived experience.
“I tapped into the struggles and frustrations I face with living in America under such a divided time in history,” she said. “I felt that when I was performing lots of unison movement I was part of the larger systems that keep people ‘in line’ … but when I had moments of breaking away from the group, I was able to find freedom in myself.”
She added that the physical exhaustion of the choreography mirrored the exhaustion of navigating “the pressures and cruelties of the world,” describing the final moments as “calling out for help.”
Despite its demands, Ratcliffe hopes audiences left with a sense of unity.
“I would like the audience to take away … that there is strength and power in numbers,” she said. “We dedicated the past three months to the idea of unity and I hope our strength and trust in each other read (on) stage.”
Then came “You’re Inside Out!” by Khamsingsavath — a raw, modern meditation that fractured the order. The stage became a site of rebellion. Muted screams were punctuated with sharp gestures, and a Latin musical interlude brought out a passionate, rhythmic heat.
“We’re infinite beings, but we’re in this human form … sometimes we feel limited — by our minds, by society, by our bodies. It’s just (about) reminding ourselves that we actually have infinite possibilities.” Vivake Khamsingsavath
Sitting beside Khamsingsavath that evening provided a unique glimpse into the piece itself.
“It’s inspired by my belief that we are made up of the universe,” Khamsingsavath said. “We’re infinite beings, but we’re in this human form … sometimes we feel limited — by our minds, by society, by our bodies. It’s just (about) reminding ourselves that we actually have infinite possibilities.”
Khamsingsavath’s philosophy seeped into the choreography itself, where quiet moments carried the same weight as the piece’s sharper, more explosive phrases.
“I love the moments of quietness where I could see each person in their presence, their stillness, their breathing.” Vivake Khamsingsavath
“I love the moments of quietness where I could see each person in their presence, their stillness, their breathing,” Khamsingsavath said. “Those moments where they ran downstage and just looked out into the abyss … it’s moments to see humans experiencing (together).”
Khamsingsavath, who has spent 20 years teaching and choreographing, described the evening as a “full-circle” moment. After teaching Ailey’s senior class earlier this year, he was invited to choreograph for the juniors.
“I really want to nurture a relationship with (my students), to make sure that they feel seen … so that they can become whatever they want to become,” he said.
After the quiet intensity of “You’re Inside Out!”, the evening softened with “Noula,” a melodic piece bathed in blue light where dancers moved like water, following every bow stroke in harmony.
The finale, “Tidal Intersections,” was originally commissioned in 2005 by Houston Met Dance. 20 years later, the cast of BFA seniors who took the stage almost doubled that of its original rendition. Dancers swept across the stage in waves of color — skirts of green, red and brown glimmering in the light.
As the final notes faded and dancers bowed, the audience rose to their feet. For a brief moment, everyone in the theater seemed to share what Khamsingsavath described: an awareness of infinity contained inside the human body, breaking free in motion.