SEMO's Dance-Apalooza to end as fans know it to make more room for students' work

Change is inevitable.

After this weekend's performances, Dance-Apalooza will cease to exist as fans know it. The dance showcase from Southeast Missouri State University, as well as the previous spring faculty shows of different names, have used pieces choreographed solely by faculty and staff at Southeast.

Students wrote pieces for the fall dance concert held in the Rust Flexible Theatre but were not given the chance to show work in the spring. Because of growth in the dance department, both the spring and fall shows will be open to student work and held in the Bedell Performance Hall.

"More and more student BFA majors are creating work that should be shown on a big stage," coordinator Marc Strauss said. "We needed to add a second dance concert into the schedule to find the right balance."

The result: another name change and opening both concerts to student, faculty and guest choreographers. Fall For Dance and Spring Into Dance will allow students to show work if it's strong enough, Strauss said.

Dancers from the Department of Theatre and Dance and violinist Brandon Christensen rehearse a dance called "Sonata for Five in Fours" for Dance-Apalooza that is opening Thursday night in the Bedell Performance Hall at the River Campus. (ELIZABETH DODD ~ edodd@semissourian.com)

"But this is our last Dance-Apalooza," he said.

For their last number, faculty members have put together 90 minutes of an eclectic mix of dances that show the audience the range of ability in their own backyard.

"We've put together the strongest concert as far as variety," Strauss said.

The show jumps from modern to ballet to hip-hop, jazz, swing and tap. One piece, "Chew, Blow, Pop!" by Hilary Peterson, is a colorful comedy.

"You got to have at least one piece where people are laughing their heads off," Strauss said.

The second dance has been called a "monster piece" by both the choreographer, Strauss, and a performer, Dr. Brandon Christensen.

Christensen, a professor in the Department of Music, is better known for his violin talents, which he lends to the show during "Sonata for Five in Fours" by Johann Sebastian Bach. The 20-minute piece has been a long-discussed collaboration between the two professors.

"It's such a huge piece that we needed to make sure we waited until we both had time," Christensen said.

The piece belongs to a collection of six sonatas and partitas by Bach for solo violin. Christensen said it uses the violin to play a polyphonic work, or a piece with multiple melodic lines to play.

"In order to learn this thing I needed a gun to my head," Christensen said. "Marc was the gun."

He said he started practicing it in April 2008, playing all day through the summer and two to three hours a day for the last few weeks.

"It would be very depressing if I were to actually add up the hours," he said.

The dance looks anything but depressing. Four dancers prance and pirouette around Christensen as he plays. Their costumes, designed by sophomore Christina Vitale, flow like quintessential ballet costumes should.

"They look beautiful," Vitale said before a dress rehearsal. She won the honor of the designing costumes in a class project. Aja M. Givens is also a student designer for the tap and hip-hop pieces in the show.

After incessantly listening to the music, researching the Baroque period and watching the performance, Vitale said she came up with a design that ultimately got to the main stage.

"This is my first big costume design," she said. "Doing period research, the blue really stood out to me."

The piece towers above the rest in length but matches them in technical difficulty. Each piece demands dancers to work hard in different dance styles.

"We're challenging the dancers more than ever," Strauss said. "And the dancers are rising to the occasion."

The challenge has been part of the fun for the dancers. Senior musical theater major Andrew Kruep dances in four pieces, "Summertime," "Exposure: Undefined and Emphasized," "Swingin' on the Moon" and "Rush Hour."

"It's that second act where there are five pieces and I'm in three of the five and the two are back to back; I'm exhausted," he said. He favors "Rush Hour" because of its difficulty.

"Rush Hour" is the guest choreographer piece written and taught to the students by Robert Battle in October when he was here with his Battleworks Dance Company.

"It's the hardest and the most intense," Kruep said. "It's only seven minutes, but it's nonstop seven minutes."

charris@semissourian.com

388-3641

http://www.semo.edu/rivercampus/index.htm

Want to go?

What: Dance-Apalooza

When: 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday; 2 p.m. Sunday

Where: Bedell Performance Hall

Tickets: River Campus box office, 651-2265, www.metrotix.com or MetroTix outlets.

Pertinent address:

Cape Girardeau, MO

<param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/8i4n4o23M0I&hl=en&fs=1"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/8i4n4o23M0I&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="560" height="340">