Spring into Dance will show choreography by students

Editor's note: The following story has been edited to reflect the correct performance days.

Spring into Dance, this semester's dance concert at Southeast Missouri State University, includes four student-choreographed pieces, three faculty-choreographed pieces and two pieces choreographed by guest artists that showcase dancing techniques and styles, according to one of the student choreographers, Laura Goeing.

The dance concert begins at 7:30 p.m. Thursday through April 12 and at 2 p.m. April 13 at the Bedell Performance Hall on the River Campus at Southeast.

"I think it's going to be a really strong and really fun show," Goeing said. "I know that there is a lot of stuff that ranges from comedy pieces that are upbeat and a lot of energy to ones that are emotional while still beautiful. I think the show is going to have a really great variety and is going to take the audience on a ride."

Goeing's piece is a Spanish-styled dance titled "Un Cambio de Ritmo," which translates from Spanish to "a change in pace."

"It's kind of a really upbeat jazz kind of routine," Goeing said. "I wanted to play a lot with [dancers] moving a lot through space, and they dance with different groups, so you kind of don't know where they are going all over the stage."

Goeing, who has choreographed before, tried to use a different process where she didn't go into rehearsal having a complete plan. Instead, she collaborated with her dancers more to make something "really fun."

"Choreographing is something that I've been working on over the past two years," Goeing said. "It's my last semester here, and I really wanted to throw one more piece of work out there to kind of continue growing in that area and say something else about my movement before I go."

Another senior choreographer is Zak McMahon, whose dance consists of a female trio.

"My dance is more of a concept, I would say, than a style," McMahon said. "It's very abstract. My piece is more focused on the creating of the piece. My piece is called 'Hozho,' which is the Navajo concept of beauty or beautiful conditions."

McMahon said the rehearsal has been great, with all of his dancers working hard and being creative, and he has learned there is never enough time nor enough space.

"This is the first work that I've ever done for a dance concert, and so when I created it I just wanted to create something beautiful," McMahon said. "Something that felt good to me, that looked beautiful and felt good to create. Then I wanted to give it to my dancers and let them make it their own and create their own beauty from that."

Another first-time choreographer for the concert is Corey Meyer, whose dance took a long journey before making it to the stage.

"I actually went into this audition wanting a guy and a girl, and I was going to do something completely different. Then I didn't see what I thought I wanted so I got the two guys," Meyer said. "Originally, there was a chair and I had this puppet idea, and that wasn't working. It changed two more times before I came around to the idea, and it was stressful because I had to change a ton of things over and over."

Meyer's final piece draws inspiration from mechanics and the way gears weave in and out of each other. He said he compared his idea with the opening credits from the television show "Game of Thrones."

"I've [auditioned a piece] before and it didn't get in, but you learn from that because they give you feedback to tell you what you need to fix and what was wrong with it structurally, and that helped me make this one," Meyer said.

The last student choreographer, Leshay Mathis, is in three dances along with constructing another.

"I'm dancing in the guest artist piece called 'Sound Effects,' and that is literally an entire piece made up of sound effects," Mathis said. "There are some of those sounds where you are like 'What is that?' but you don't even care because it is so fun."

Mathis said the costumes add to the crazy look of the piece, with bright colors, suspenders and helicopter hats.

"I'm in a piece called 'Building Danger,' the senior piece, which also has a guest artist," Mathis said. "It has these really crazy props, and I don't think anyone is ever doing the same thing all together except for maybe two eight-counts. So it's a lot to look at."

"The last piece I'm in is Philip Edgecomb's," Mathis said. "The cast is 20 people, and it's very strong and very rigid. It's cool to work with such a big cast because most of the stuff in the dance department is seven to five people, so to be in a piece that has 20 has been a very hectic but fun process."

Mathis' dance contains six girls and a variety of dance techniques.

"It's jazz; there's some stepping in it. It's kind of funky and makes you smile because the girls in the piece have fun with it," Mathis said. "When we are at rehearsals and I'm smiling, we know we're in a good spot."

Tickets are at the River Campus box office, 518 S. Fountain St., 573-651-2265, and at rivercampusevents.com.