Group brings an array of flavors to this year's dance show at River Campus

Superheroes, light bulbs and love inspired the dance numbers in "Fall for Dance," the annual fall dance concert presented by the Southeast Missouri State University Department of Theatre and Dance.

Choreographers and Southeast faculty members Dr. Marc Strauss, Hilary Peterson and Philip Edgecombe organized the show. Edgecombe also serves as the show's artistic coordinator. All three say this year's show has some impressive dancers.

"With each new concert, the dancers get stronger and stronger and people are continually impressed with the artistry they are developing," Strauss said. "We are excited to see that growth on stage. 'Fall for Dance 2011' will knock people's socks off."

Each fall, students of Southeast choreograph and audition their original dance pieces to be featured in "Fall for Dance." This year, four student pieces were chosen for the show. The student choreographers behind 2011's featured pieces are Jessica Schloss, Thomas Proctor, Hannah Martin and Kara Burley.

"The student choreographers went above and beyond and the student pieces are the strongest they have ever been," Peterson said. "Every piece is different and has its own dynamic."

Schloss' piece mixes modern and tap dance styles that Edgecombe says deliver an interesting and pleasantly surprising piece. The piece also serves as her senior project.

Proctor's piece -- called "What never stops but stands still?" -- explores how time works and uses many lifts and pairings.

"Addicted" is Martin's piece about people struggling with addiction in a group-therapy session. Strauss says it has a lot of neat steps.

The fourth student -- Burley's "The Echoes of Their Agony Are All Around You" -- has dancers starting in the orchestra pit and working their way onto the stage. The piece is choreographed to raise questions about what the pit represents and then explores what the dancers from the pit represent.

The student choreographers aren't the only ones bringing hot pieces to the show. Choreography by Strauss, Peterson and Edgecombe will appear in the program.

In Edgecombe's piece, "Incandescence," dancers manipulate light bulbs that hang down to the stage. After being choreographed in 2009, "Incandescence" was presented in May to a panel of dance professionals in St. Louis and has also been chosen to be performed at a future dance festival.

The piece "has beautiful movement and imagery and light bulbs are a unique technical element that you don't normally see used in a piece," Peterson said. "When it is performed well, it is breathtaking."

Peterson's piece, "The Spectacular 6," is a routine with six women superheroes and is danced to a mash-up of music and Orson Welles' radio broadcast "War of the Worlds."

"If I know Hilary, these women will be showing off their tremendous powers," Strauss said. "It will be a typical, wild, crazy and high-energy Hilary Peterson piece."

Strauss's piece, "Let's Fall in Love," begins with a "meet the parents" setting that evolves into a night on the town after the parents go to bed. Peterson and Edgecombe said it is a fun, energetic piece.

The opening piece of the show was created by guest choreographer Adam Sage, director of the Missouri Ballet Theatre in St. Louis.

"The opening piece is a great learning piece for the students. We are a more contemporary program at SEMO, and this piece gives the dancers the opportunity to dance en pointe," Peterson said. "It is a classical three part ballet and a nicely put together piece for the students."

The show will be at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 1 and 2 and at 2 and 7:30 p.m. Dec. 3, in the Bedell Performance Hall. Tickets are $16 each and can be purchased at the box office.