"You’re heavily dependent on someone else to bail you out if an idea is running its course.”

Members of “Thirteen” said that interacting with other dedicated student performers from different creative backgrounds has proven challenging but fun.

“We’ve really gotten to know each other,” said dancer Ryuji Yamaguchi ’03. “The most important thing is for us to be able to communicate with each other.”

In addition to the dancers, musicians and actors, Dan Scully ’99 improvised stage lighting throughout the show—in striking contrast to the pre-prepared lighting of most shows—in order to add a visual dimension. As the action on-stage changed, the lights dimmed, changed colors and narrowed to focus on particular performers.

Splayed across the stage were an array of instruments. A piano, a violin and a drumset were the most conventional of the collection, accompanied by empty water jugs, couch cushions and a table full of ringing cell phones. Props were used as devices for acting as well as to create sound.

As the performers dealt with shifting scenes and they picked up the rhythms and themes of each other’s art forms.

Sometimes the movement was rather pedestrian, sometimes elements of ethnic dance crept in; there was even a fair share of wild sprinting across the stage.

Scully, who works in the Office for the Arts’ dance program, said he was very enthusiastic about the performance.

“It’s always exciting to see students exploring cross-disciplinary forms,” says Scully. “The lack of hard boundaries between art disciplines here at Harvard is one of our strengths.”

Newer Movements

While interdisciplinary art is not exactly revolutionary, it is a movement that is picking up steam at Harvard.

Minster cites last October’s “Ex-Rated,” as a sort of genesis. Later this semester, a thesis project in the same venue will provide another outlet.

And while nothing definite has been set for an encore performance, Corriel assures that “Thirteen” will indeed be an “ongoing pursuit” in the spring, emphasizing that the primary goal is getting people interested in interdisciplinary art.

Corriel said he hoped the first audience “had some kind of emotional experience, or intellectual experience, or both.”

“Thirteen’s” task won’t be easy, though, because of the difficulty of merging a dozen students’ creative visions.