Dancers rehearse for Evening of Dance
When Richard Ouellette came to Keene State in 2008 from northern New Hampshire, he wanted to study the backstage arts of technical theater design. He soon fell in love with modern dance and added dance performance to his resume. After graduation in 2012, he worked in Boston as a dancer and scenic designer, then went on to graduate school at the University of Maryland, earning an MFA in Scenic Design.
Then it was off to New York City, where his training as a dancer served him well in his work as a scenic designer for dance concerts, operas, and other performances. “It helps to have been a dancer, to know how bodies move in space,” he says. “When I am creating the architecture for a dance, I draw the body first, then imagine the world around it.”