On the night of Friday, Feb. 6, the 2026 Farelle Artist in Residence Gabriel Bruno Eng Gonzalez’20 presented a piece he choreographed, performed by students and composed collaboratively. “Post-Internet-Dance-TheatreProduction-Performance-Show” closed out Gonzalez’s two-week residence with Beloit College. This piece is the longer version of the dance which will be presented next week at Chelonia (see “Chelonia: the Night of Nights” By Sonya Edwards).
Students, alumni, professors, and staff, some familiar with Gonzalez from his years as a student of the college, found their way down to the Hendricks Center for the Arts to be immersed in the layers of a dance both physical and digital, familiar and estranged, cyber and human, solid yet fluid, but altogether seen, heard, and felt.
As the lights dimmed and a mechanical beat began to whirl, three dancers, Lane Wilson’26, Lily Niesen’28, and Eve Barolsky, professor Daniel Barolsky’s 5th grade daughter, prowled onto stage, relaying intentional movements that felt both reaching and swinging. Vivian Kopka’27 crossed onto the stage, pushing a TV monitor that she planted downstage right, in front of the audience. Soon, on an iOS interface, the monitor lit up with a live stream recording projecting the movement behind it.
As the music faded out, bright horns announced the dawning of a new sequence. A horse — yes, a horse (their name is Chuck)! — galloped around as some dancers began twirling in a beautiful ballet style, while others blended more hip hop elements.
This was followed by another sequence that had low strums and rattles where a dancer swam in a river of green screens that the other dancers held up and moved around them, covering and uncovering the space. All the while, Kopka raised a larger greenscreen over the whole view, allowing the audience to see into the past sequences now folding atop each other. It was altogether mesmerizing.
The triumphant horn sequence and this sequence of rattles alternated many times, the dances echoing each other, past and present merging with songs and gestures now familiar. The video on the screen grew denser and more complex, a kaleidoscope of images and sounds.
As the piece ended, the dancers brought out the layer of the clothes they had slowly shed throughout the piece, placing them on the ground with a bow. Kopka rolled the monitor across the stage, the screen now showcasing a rolling chat of people reacting with emojis and comments with different windows open of the performance in various positions.
In the applause that followed, the performers joined the audience.“Now we just play the video,” Gonzalez announced. In the soft afterglow of warm pink light with the backdrop of green and faint sweet music, the audience, performers, and director watched the screen as one.
Afterwards, Gonzalez revealed that the chat was created by Cullyn Murphey’s class, who also helped compose the music. One student, Jasmine Kingsbury’28, was in attendance. The other musicians, Colin Bolger’28, Brandon Barber’27, and Soren Beck are also credited on the program. Other performers involved were Ella Silva’26, Katelyn Schroeder’26 who helped with the lighting, and, of course, Chuck the Horse.
The evening concluded with an audience Q&A.
Kembre Daniel’28 asked about the rehearsal process, which was revealed to be from around 5:00-9:30 P.M. every night from Monday to Friday.
Nielsen‘28 said the hardest thing was “figuring everything out at the same time” but also answered Chyler Smith’28’s question of what was the dancer’s biggest take away as “just being able to dance for super long time, complain about it after, and do it all again” describing it as “addictive.”
Wilson’26 replied that they “can’t wait for the video – I’m gonna send it to my mom” sharing that they used to dance every day but stopped and this was their first time doing it again in 10 years.
When Svea Jones’25 asked what people’s favorite part of the process was, Wilson’26 said that they liked how as “everytime is different…I really liked everytime at the end being able to see what it looked like [with the video], see how it’s changing and where it’s going”
Barolsky’s response was simply “dancing” and at a later interview said how it was “fun to work with people older.” Kopka’27 who had only joined the rehearsal process the day before, said that she really enjoyed the warm up process and it made her feel part of the group.
Each person’s experience of the dance is uniquely their own. Where one is seated and where one chooses to look. Liam Peterson’27 who sat right in front of the screen spoke on when she got overwhelmed by the screen she could look at the live dancers “Is that the point of having the live dancers or else it could just be a video layering itself.” Gonzales replied,“it is part of the point, and the other is catching yourself, like oh I haven’t look at the live people sweating in front of me for 15 minutes”
Overarchingly, everyone in the audience was enthralled by the piece and grateful for Gonzalez for sharing his art and insight with us. Although his residence has ended, he still left us to sit with many things. A reflection on how we exist in a post-internet landscape, and a performance that will exist in Chelonia and whose poster of elegant dancing turtles he designed himself.
Check out his blog where he speaks on the performance and has the program at Goob.Online, and experience the dance yourself at Chelonia next week on the screen or off.
Featured image: Ella Walters’27
Leave a Reply