The dance program at UI is expanding in education and across the community. On Saturday, Nov. 11, dancers emerged into their performances as the first new company team of UI’s dance program.
This is the first year in which the dance program has created a team called UIdaho Dance Ensemble where a formal group of dancers create and perform shows. The (E) Merge show was their first. To set up this one production alone they had been working since summer creating, planning, and organizing to perform for one night.
The purpose of this new company is to be more involved in the community and perform for the real world. Students are being educated in new techniques as well as learning how to take their art and expression into their futures. They are not a team to compete, but rather show their talents and help each other grow as dancers.
“They are artists themselves and we want to encourage them to become an artist.” said dance studio co-director Belle Baggs, “They are in the process of problem-solving, creating movement, and working together.”
This team of dancers works together as well as with their instructors to learn and create. They are taught to make their own movements apart and together. With their creation they form a choreographed production, each having not just performing, but expressing themselves through the dance.
Cayln Haney explained the process of how the team creates a dance together.
“They basically come in and say we want you to come up with a movement that feels like the color yellow,” Haney explained, “You take those movements and you add or adapt and then add them in other people and it just grows and grows and grows, so everybody gets a prince of what they created into the dance.”
In between performances, a video was presented for the audience to be educated on the work the dance program does at UI. Information on UI’s dance program includes their leading dance science programs. Showing the dance program at UI isn’t just teaching dance, but the science behind dancing.
While all dances were impactful in their own way, the most unique performance was called Girl Pool, an interpretation of women working together in one space. This dance was a change of pace as it felt more upbeat and humorous compared to the more impassioned performances.
“I created this as a part of my master’s thesis project,” choreographer Rachel Winchester said, “It is about adapting literature for dance and blending theater and dance together.”
Another popular performance of the night was Homebodies, which was choreographed almost entirely by the dancers Hannah Donk, Anna Gyure Havick, Lexie Powell, and Mandy Scheffer. Each dancer’s solos were unique as well as their costumes, as no dress was the same, making the whole display feel like watching a cone of rainbow sherbet.
To end the night, the dancers took us back in time as they performed various dances to different music from the 50s. They were choreographed by special guest Nick Cendese, a studio dance teacher from Salt Lake City, Utah. He took the dancer’s solos and duets the dancers created and made one big work of choreography.
If you would like to see more happy feet this school year, many more events are to come. Just this Dec. 2 and 3, the Dance Festival will have the Nutcracker performed in the Hartung Theater. A little less formal event is taking place not much after on Dec. 7 called Dance Off Hand as a fundraiser to showcase the Dance program here at UI.
Sophia Newell can be reached at [email protected]