“This is human created art. This is something that AI can never copy,” said Jose Fernandez-Mares, a student choreographer, describing Diablo Valley College’s upcoming spring dance show, which challenges the growing influence of AI in the arts.
“To be Alive: Is to Dance” runs May 16-18 in DVC’s Performing Arts Center (PAC) on the Pleasant Hill campus.
Tickets for the show — produced by DVC’s Dance Department Chair, Kimberly Valmore, with help from student choreographers Fernandez-Mares and Keimya Brown — can be found on tickets.dvc.edu.
“What makes DVC Dance’s spring shows stand out is that the dances are led by student choreographers,” said Fernandez-Mares.
Describing the show’s theme, Fernandez-Mares said, “It [is] about AI taking over, and through the show, we’re basically saying how human-created art matters.”
Fernandez-Mares said his piece is “loosely based on [his] experiences in high school.”
“It’s basically about temptation, peer pressure, and the glorification of them,” he said. “I’m having one dancer who is basically me, being pushed around by their social circle, getting introduced to drugs, and then getting pushed into doing it.”
Both Fernandez-Mares and Brown performed in previous semesters at DVC. But this semester represents Fernandez-Mares’ first chance choreographing for the program, and he said he is enjoying the “learning process.”
“I’m learning about what it means to be a choreographer,” he said. “Learning how to utilize my dancers and how to utilize my ideas. I’m still a student, [but] in a sense, I am a choreographer.”
Brown, on the other hand, has now been a part of seven shows with DVC, four of which featured her own choreography.
Brown’s group piece is a modern ballet piece, she said, “kind of about female rage, woman rage, the construct of what a good woman is, and [we] kind of turn that on its head.”
She added, “I just see it like, kind of dark and eerie in the beginning, and then something expanding and exploding with color.”
“It literally is blood, sweat and tears,” said Brown about her commitment to the work. “Stressing out about making it to practice, not eating enough, and not getting enough sleep.”
“I feel like we do it for the love of the game.”