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WEDNESDIIY
NOVEMBERe. 2017
FALL DANCE CONClin
FAlLiNg
into DAnCE
2017 Fall Dance Concert features six original numbers by
faculty, guest artist and students
The.
DIEGO PINEDA | Contributor | @Diego_Pine[la19
~i^^^cTivE^— process of a dance concert
mirrors the structure of a—-SDld^r The
I NOUN
center is the concept of the ShOVV . Each
stmnd
NOUN
NOU^
m-
INOUN
attached is a different contributing
— from the director to the danc
ers, choreographers, crew and costume designers. As
the performance approaches, the different strands
to connect.
VEE
Sophomore-
jMosx
NOUN
- Meg Boericke did
not have much connection to other strands when she
was cast in this year’s fall
during the first SA/ML
° NOUN
ADJECTIVE concert
of school.
She
soon became more aware of the many parts that all
lead up to the final product — when the lights go
on and she is StiXndin^ in full makeup and
costume, ready to perform.
This year’s fall dance concert will be running from
Nov. 9-12 in in Robert's \yo.
PLACE
Scott Studios at Arts West. It will be featuring num-
. hers, ranging from contemporary
NUMBER
ballet to a piece inspired by “Mad Libs,” and a guest
artist piece by Kira Blazek inspired by the 80s, 90s,
and early 2000s. It will also two
student choreographed numbers.
VERB
J EN GUY METCALF,
ASSISTANT professor of
dance and artistic director
of the show, begins
thinking of concepts or ideas
for the show about a year
in advance. She does a lot of
research through websites,
books, movies, music and
photography to find a concept
for her piece and the show
itself.
“I gather all that and start
to generate movement in
spired by my research,” Met
calf said. “I teach that to the
dancers not in a linear way. I
just teach the movement, and
I start to edit and shape the
dance.”
While directing the path
Planning for rmr.Dx\
of the concert, Metcalf, along
with faculty in the dance
department, also selected
student choreography in De
cember 2016 during a salon
showcase. From that salon,
they decided what pieces of
students taking the choreog
raphy course would go to na
tional conferences and which
will be in the fall dance con
cert.
“We encourage our stu
dents to explore,” Metcalf said.
“We place emphasis on craft
ing choreography and devel
oping movement.”
The opportunity for stu
dents to showcase their chore
ography onstage allows them
to have professional experi
ence outside the classroom.
The works in this years
fall concert are mainly con
temporary in dance style and
music. The piece Metcalf cho
reographed is a contemporary
pointe piece. Aside from cho
reographing her piece, Met
calf also mentors the student
choreographers and offers
feedback so they can improve
certain parts of the dance.
“We have helped them to
improve their choreograph
ic work and encourage them
to coach their dancers in the
performance of the piece,”
Metcalf said. “Not only do
the choreographers improve,
but the dancers also develop
as artists as a part of this pro
cess.”
One of the dances Metcalf
is most excited about is called,
Dont stop (verb ending in
-ing),” which is part of the
Mad Limbs course.
This course was inspired
by a conference presentation
^d is a play on the words
Mad Libs,” the word game.
Renay Aumiller, assistant pro
fessor of dance, and Metcalf
helped develop and teach this
course, which was open to all
university students and con
sists of students with a variety
of academic interests, such as
dance majors, dance minors,
communications majors and
business majors. There was no
casting for this piece because
-O Its
classroom,”
the cast includes everyone en
rolled in the course.
“Its an example of our
scholarship finding
way into the
Metcalf said.
The performance of this
dance will be different ev
ery night of the show since it
has a focus on improvisation
through verbal communica
tion and physical movements.
“I find such great pleasure
m the rehearsal process, but
what is really exciting is when
the students take everything
they have learned ffom class
onstage, and you can see ev
idence that they are truly
learning and developing as
artists,” Metcalf said.
u
WE HAVE HELPED#!
CHOREOGRAPHIC WtJJ
COACH THEIR DApr
THE PIECE. NOTONLP
IMPROVE, BUTTHEDI,R
ARTISTS AS A PARTY'S
JEN GUY METCALF
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR