Style & Culture |

Student dancers showcase mid-year work December 13 and 14

By Sophia Tam

Posted on Monday, November 19th, 2007, 12:00 am

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The dance department had a brand new dance show Thursday night in Minsky Hall.

The dance show – Emerging Works – “is a new series this year,” Ann Ross, the director of the dance department, said. “It gives dancers a chance to show what they have created and what they are working on for our main showcase in the fall.”

Emerging Work provided a preview of the fall dance showcase to the teachers and to the audience. “Some dances you see tonight are going to be in the fall dance showcase in December,” Ross said.

Performing in the main showcases, such as the fall and spring dance performances, is not enough for energetic University of Maine dancers. Emerging Works acted as a warm up for the main showcases. The dancers had a chance to show their unfinished work in a relaxed setting. “I think it’s great. It gives them an opportunity to show it informally and it is how the fall showcase starts out,” Laren Lynn, UMaine dance teacher, said.

Not all the dancers had the opportunity to perform in the showcase in the past years, according to the president of UMaine dance club, Elizabeth Damon. There was no audition for dancers to participate in Emerging Works. This meant all the dancers had a fair chance to show their talents to the UMaine community.

Due to the limited seats in the Hauck Auditorium, there was a large amount of people who weren’t able to see the spring showcase last year. “There was a long line for tickets. You had to go really early to get in,” said Justin Ouellette, an audience member of last year’s spring showcase. The idea of increasing showcases helped relieve this problem.

There were 12 performances in Emerging Works, varying in type salsa, Jazz, Modern, lyrical, swing and Hip Hop.

Most of the dances were presented by the UMaine dance club. Performances usually lasted for about a minute and were not polished pieces.

The longest performance “Seasons,” which lasted for more than two minutes, was presented by the UMaine Dance Club. Performers were dancing in four groups; each group presented one season. The group of 30 got the most applause.

Other performances were presented by on-campus dance clubs, dance classes and individual student groups. The fast-paced dance, “Bugle Boy” was performed by the Swing Club; an untitled Jazz performance was done by the intermediate Jazz class taught by UMaine instructor, Terry Lacy; a Hip Hop dancing piece, “The way I am,” was performed by a duo, Amanda Fahey and Danielle Reider.

“The series is an enormous success. We’re definitely going to keep this,” Ross said after the show. There will be two more intramural dance shows in the spring semester. The fall dance showcase will be on December 13 and 14 in the Hauck Auditorium. UMaine students with a MaineCard can see this great show for free.