Maiken Zoëga-Nielsen | Culture Editor
Oct. 4, 2016; 7 a.m.
Photo by Nao Enomoto
It will be a mixture of movement accentuation, exotic rhythms and emotional messages when the dance department’s Fall Dance Concert graces the Lindenwood Theater stage Oct. 13-15.
A variety of faculty choreographers will have pieces represented at the concert, which will be a very diverse experience with a lot of different styles, according to senior dance major and choreographer Christa Williams.
For the dancers, the concert will be the culmination of many weeks of hard work.The dancers have been in rehearsal since the second week of classes, said Janet Strzelec, chair of the dance department.
“We had auditions the first week, we started rehearsing the second week,” she said. “For a dance concert it’s a short rehearsal time.”
One of the choreographers to have pieces in the concert is Tricia Zweier, assistant professor in dance. Zweier, who choreographs commissioned work for the Modern American Dance Company as well, has two pieces in the concert.
“I think movement ultimately is most important in dance,” she said. “There’s no message in either one of [my pieces], but there’s clear moods in both of them.”
About casting her dancers, Zweier said that she looks for someone who makes her look twice.
“I look for people who are performing in the moment,” she said. “It’s not always the best technically driven dancer; it’s somebody that can catch an eye and not for any other reason than being an interesting performer.”
Photo by Nao Enomoto
For Williams, who has been dancing since she was 5 years old, dancing is a very important form of expression.
“Rehearsal is definitely the hardest part and the most tedious part, but the most rewarding thing is seeing your work onstage,” she said. “You connect with it personally and with other people when they’re watching it. They can see that you’re experiencing something unique. That’s the most fun part for me.”
Williams will be dancing in “The Moment I Said It,” choreographed by adjunct in dance Amy Gammon, and “Mambo This,” choreographed by Strzelec and herself.
Gammon has a definite message in her piece.
“It’s all about the feeling you have when you said the wrong thing; that instant you said it,” she said. “That’s what my lead role is depicting: that anxious feeling.”
[perfectpullquote align=”right” cite=”Janet Strzelec” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=”36″]“Students here get free tickets, so they don’t have any reason not to come.”[/perfectpullquote]
Strzelec believes that dance has great communicational value.
“I think it’s the most primal form of communication,” she said.
Zweier also agrees that dance has great importance.
“You can kind of disassociate yourself from reality. I think that can be a great release for people,” she said. “It’s important that it can be delivered in a lighter suggestive way because it makes people think.”
Tickets for the Fall Dance Concert can be purchased at the box office in the J. Scheidegger Center, and all Lindenwood students and faculty can get two free tickets with a valid student or faculty ID.
“It would really be great if more people came to the concerts,” Strzelec said. “Students here get free tickets, so they don’t have any reason not to come.”
Williams said students who haven’t been to a dance concert before should attend this one.
“This concert is unique because it’s kind of short, which is unusual, so for people who are not dancers, I think that this is a good concert to go to,” she said.
Strzelec added, “We’re not trying to keep this to ourselves; we want to share what we do.”
