Student choreography convey emotion in spring dance

Dance students perform “SupercaliAcroisis” during the ‘Dance Collective’ | Courtesy of Steve Rosa

The student based “Dance Collective” at the McKinney Theater on April. 25 featured six student-choreographed dances on diverse genres from modern ballet, contemporary and concepts such as nature, colors and travel.

“Dance Collective is our student choreography concert,” said Steve Rosa, the chair of the dance department. “Each choreographer has their own concept, ideas, and things that they’re working with.”

Performers reflected on their ideas and emotions like “Still There,” “Nature,” “You have to accept the fact they are gone,” “Passenger,” “Blue – A State of Mind” and “Hurry Up and/or Send me the Address.” The first piece “SupercaliArcoiris” was choreographed by Rosa.

Each dance helped convey emotion through movement, facial expression, sound and the story they are trying to portray. 

“I thought it was really amazing how each choreographer had their own style, and they portrayed that within their choreography,” said Angelica Del Conte, a psychology major in Saddleback.“ I was able to perform as they would and express their visions, which was really wonderful as a dancer, because I get to show exactly what they’re thinking.”

She also adds that through the performance, she connected with the choreographers not only as peers, but to understand their vision, craft and see a new form of dance. 

Ava Arambarri, a dance major, said that the choreography done by the students helped connect with her peers and found it special to be a part of.

“It was all super fun, and I think this is the first student crew show that I’ve really enjoyed being in,” Arambarri said.” We all respected the choreographers and their ideas, and it was super fun collaborating with everyone on these pieces to find.”

Each piece had a story or inspiration written in them. Dance major Samuel Harraman’s piece “Blue – a State of Mind” for instance was about the color blue and what the color can represent though emotion.

“I kind of wanted to do a piece that represented kind of the color blue and shift from soundness to happiness to sadness to happiness to light area next to,” Harraman said. 

He also incorporated music such as “Blue” by Billie Eilish and designed blue lighting and costume to help represent the wide spectrum of blue in his choreographed piece.

Another piece that had an incorporated message was “You have to accept the fact they are gone,” choreographed by psychology major Elizabeth Feist. The dancers said the piece was about grief and accepting death which was a deep topic for them and dedicated that piece to their loved ones. 

Janet Fordunski, a dance major, explained that her piece “Passenger” conveyed the experience of travel and meeting new people along the way which was inspired by her own personal experiences.

“I take the bus to school, and I started noticing how we behave when we travel,” Fordunski said. “We take on a different persona when we’re sitting with people that we don’t really know, but yet, we become friends with people when we travel with them regularly.” 

She also performed in “Hurry Up and/Send Me The Address,” which was choreographed by dance major Leya Odyedkov. Fordunski said the abstract piece was not only cohesively designed and thought out, but had some homegrown elements built into it. The music for that piece was composed by Saddleback student Wyatt Davis. 

Through the student-based performance and the emotions conveyed in each piece, Rosa hopes that the audience through dance can feel inspired to explore different sides of who they are. 

“I want the audience to be inspired, have some thought-provoking moments and to have some happiness, joy, and some pride if it’s the loved ones that they’re seeing on stage or if they’re in alum from our department who are coming to support,” Rosa said. “Have that pride in them coming back to visit and seeing all the great work we’re doing.”

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