Dancers from Colby College and Portland Ballet rehearse in Portland. Portland Ballet is collaborating with Colby College during the January term to present a new work. The company will get to expand its size and audience, and the student dancers will get to dance alongside professionals. The piece is being developed in real time by the dancers and musicians, also from Colby. Ben McCanna/Portland Press Herald

Nell Shipman, Annie Kloppenberg and Caitlin Scholl huddled over their notes in the studio at Portland Ballet. More than two dozen dancers mingled and stretched on the floor. Four musicians waited with keyboards and guitars. They had just finished rehearsing a piece for an upcoming performance, but the choreography had lasted longer than the song.

“OK, we need to add 45 seconds to the instrumentation,” Scholl said.

The musicians made their adjustments. Everyone found their positions again. This time, the dancers hit their final pose as the musicians played their final notes. Shipman and Kloppenberg were nodding and smiling.

“That was great,” Shipman told the group. “I know there’s a lot of brain work going on along with a lot of body work.”

This isn’t a typical rehearsal at Portland Ballet. It’s also a college course. The assignment? Develop a contemporary performance piece from scratch in less than four weeks.

Madelyn Zurawski of Portland Ballet, along with dancers from both Colby College and Portland Ballet rehearse on Tuesday in Portland. Portland Ballet is collaborating with Colby College during the January term to present a new work. The company will get to expand its size and audience, and the student dancers will get to dance alongside professionals. Ben McCanna/Portland Press Herald

Twenty of these dancers are members of the professional company, and Shipman is the ballet’s artistic director. But the others come from outside the company. Kloppenberg is the chair of performance, theater and dance and director of the Lyons Art Lab at Colby College. Scholl is a multidisciplinary artist, musician and composer living in Portland. Seven dancers and four musicians in the room are students at Colby.

Every January, Colby offers a short term when students can explore new subjects, do internships or conduct research. Recently, the college has offered a “Jan Plan” residency in partnership with Portland Ballet. Students work and then perform alongside professionals from the company. This year, the course has expanded to include student musicians as well. Everyone — undergraduates and professionals, dancers and musicians — has contributed to the movement and the sound.

The monthlong intensive will culminate in three upcoming performances in Westbrook and Waterville.

“We’re developing the choreography in response to the music, and they’re developing the sound in response to the choreography,” Kloppenberg said. “We’re exchanging audio files and videos. We’re arriving at the structure through an emergent process, and we’re all experimenting.”

Jackson Gormley and Allison Asninn of Portland Ballet rehearse in Portland with Colby College students during the January term to present a new work. Ben McCanna/Portland Press Herald

The piece, titled “Keepers of the Light,” is inspired by Maine’s landscape, history and lighthouses. Shipman and Kloppenberg have collaborated for years, and Scholl has worked with Kloppenberg through Colby in the past. But this project is the first to bring the three of them together. Each has her own interpretation on the theme. Kloppenberg is interested in the violence of the sea, the high stakes of keeping the lamp lit, the stormy conditions, the desperation. Shipman is exploring the idea of a beacon in the darkness, something that can guide and uplift. Scholl is thinking about the tension between light and dark, silence and swell.

“We’re trying to explore different directions for the collaboration to flow,” Scholl said. “I like to challenge the norm. For me, it’s interesting to try something different than what we normally do.”

Some students signed up for the class as part of a degree in dance or music, but they also come from majors ranging from economics to environmental policy to computer science. Most were interested in the creative experience as much as the credit.

“It’s very interesting to look at both visual and auditory mediums of art,” senior Raghav Surya, who is a classically trained percussionist and music producer, said. “We need more opportunities to marry them together. In music, the stuff that I’ve done has been specifically taking short films and scoring them. Everything is very set. I wanted to do something that was very dynamic and performance based.”

Caitlyn Scholl, left, Nell Shipman and Annie Kloppenberg collaborate on choreography during a ballet rehearsal on Tuesday. Ben McCanna/Portland Press Herald

Still, this class has homework. Scholl assigned the musicians to read “To the Lighthouse” by Virginia Woolf; they also watched the 2019 film “The Lighthouse.” They had to do what Scholl called “sonic experiments” to create sounds in response to those source materials. The result ranges from folk to rock and also including original songwriting by students. They’re working with guitars and keyboards as well as pouring water and singing bowls.

The dancers had to do research related to the themes of the piece and then develop movements inspired by what they learned. Sophomore Tyerra Osborne, for example, did research on navigation in the dark and echolocation that informed a section of choreography where a dancer has her eyes closed and is guided through the movements by others on the stage.

Some moves and notes will be part of the final product, while others will be edited or cut.

“Although the choreography has changed, our ideas are still there,” freshman dancer Ava Natalino said. “Annie’s talked about pieces of choreography that have been abandoned or warped as lived experiences that live in our bodies still. Even if a piece of choreography or a move that we initially created isn’t necessarily directly put into the piece, the echo of it is still there.”

Presley Privitera sports a Colby College sweatshirt while listening to instruction with fellow dancers in Portland on Tuesday. Ben McCanna/Portland Press Herald

For the professional dancers, this collaboration with Colby College offers a significant contrast to their usual work. They started this project in January after their traditional performances of “A Victorian Nutcracker” in December. Members of the company described the process as an enjoyable contrast.

“It’s very different to come from a very well known, classical ballet where we know exactly what the music is and we know exactly what the choreography is going to be,” apprentice Rebekah Sparks said. “Especially for this collaboration, we don’t have set music yet. Everything is being made all at once, so it’s a lot more freeform.”

Shipman said the unique process gives everyone involved the opportunity to challenge themselves.

“There’s a lot of energy stirring, there’s a lot of voices going,” she said. “But it’s controlled in a sense that we’re all working toward the same thing. Once we step away from it, we can really let those effects settle and allow them to support whatever our next endeavors are.”

At rehearsal, Kloppenberg and Shipman sat cross-legged on the floor to watch the next piece. Scholl cued the musicians, and the dancers swirled onto the floor.

“I’m still obsessed with the opening of this,” Shipman said to Kloppenberg.

IF YOU GO

WHAT: “Keepers of the Light” presented by Portland Ballet and Colby Arts

WHEN AND WHERE: Jan. 31 at the Westbrook Performing Arts Center and Feb. 7 and 8 at Colby’s Gordon Center For Creative and Performing Arts in Waterville

HOW MUCH: Admission for the show at the Westbrook Performing Arts Center is $10 to $35 before fees as part of a pay-what-you-can model. Tickets are available at porttix.com or by calling 207-842-0800. The performances at the Gordon Center For Creative and Performing Arts are free, but seats can be reserved online at arts.colby.edu.

INFO: For more information, visit portlandballet.org or call 207-772-9671.