Grace Cavanaugh, Staff Writer~
Dance Works will host their fall concert on November 8th at 7:30 p.m. in the Dillard Theater. According to Jeff Wittman, Professor and Chair for Theatre, Dance Works is “[a] variety of dance styles performed in a one-night only fall showcase.”
Emma Noe, a sophomore Communications major, is participating in her second Dance Works show. “Dance Works is a small group of about 20 students, male and female, and we perform two shows, once each semester, and it’s just a fun way for us to keep dancing,” said Noe.
Brennae Spence, a junior Communications major, added, “We don’t like to think of it as a dance club. We think of it more as a dance community on campus, because we don’t really focus on the dancers who have been dancing since they were three and have been classically trained. We have dancers from who’ve never ever danced before to people who are highly trained…so I think that our spectrum is so wide. I like that we can all, like, come to talk to each other so not, like, this dancer, you can’t talk to her. I feel like we’re all close.”
Spence continued, saying, “I’ve done Dance Works every semester since I came here as a freshman. I would say this year has actually been my favorite year because [of what] we’ve done. I feel like especially in the fall semester this year, we’ve been pushed by our director, Susie, to do a lot of different things and I’m also choreographing for the third time this semester, and I feel like the piece that I did was very different from the pieces I’ve done in Dance Works so far.”
According to Noe, “It runs all year and we have two rehearsals on Mondays and Wednesdays. I’m very excited [about Dance Works]. It’s my second time choreographing.”
Spence talked about the creation of the Dance Works showcase this year, saying, “Our fall showcase is more like an adventure for the choreographers, like we all try to create a piece in a way that we’ve never created a piece before. I think this fall showcase is very new for all of us. We’re all doing something that is out of our comfort zone.”
For the fall semester, Dance Works is a one-night only event and free to the public. For the Spring Semester, according to Spence, “I think she [Susie] really changed the difference between our fall showcase and our spring showcase. Spring is more like a production. Fall is more relaxed, so there’s not really any lighting design, the costumes are very low scale. In spring, we have three to four shows, so we have more shows and it’s very high produced.”
If students are interested in joining Dance Works, Noe said, “We do hold special auditions in the spring.” Spence added, “There’s an audition each semester. I know the one in spring is bigger in a broader scale.”
“Come see our shows! Come see what we’re about,” encouraged Noe. “When you come to our fall showcase, come with an open mind. There’ll be a lot of unexpected, stuff that’s unexpected. I think for us as dancers and for the audience especially, so just be open minded about it,” added Spence.