BURNING FEET: ST. LOUIS DANCE COMPANY TO PERFORM SATURDAY

ST. LOUIS -- Suzanne Grace may have the perfect name for a dancer, but she also has what she calls "expressive feet."

In fact, Grace says, "I am known for my feet."

In the dance world that translates into high arches. "It's like when a musician notices another musician's hands," she explained. "Dancers always notice my feet."

Thus the name of Grace's modern dance company: Burning Feet.

It was the title of her first dance solo in college, and also describes her St. Louis-based company's burning desire to dance and move freely, she says.

"Many of the pieces are done barefoot."

The Burning Feet Dance Company will perform at 8 p.m. Saturday at Academic Auditorium on the campus of Southeast Missouri State University. Admission is $10 general, and $7 for seniors and students. Faculty, staff, students and Southeast Missouri Concert Association members will be admitted free.

The dancers also will present two workshops at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Friday in Southeast's Parker Dance Studio. The workshops are open to the public.

Burning Feet is composed of 10 dancers and a percussionist. Like Grace, most are dance teachers. A few have more regular jobs. The lone male dancer, Allen Thomas, is a tree-cutter. Mary Ann Rund works for a caterer.

Grace is the company's artistic director and choreographer, and also performs. She created and choreographed all the pieces in Saturday's program.

She also will perform two solo numbers -- the earthy "Solo Flight," which is accompanied by percussion music, and "The Feet and the Beat," which she calls "a duet for dancer and drummer."

As a company, Burning Feet will lead off with a classical number, "The Other Bach Piece," and move into more modern dances ranging from the Cajun-influenced "Marsella's Resort" to "Red Hat Chairs," a piece set to piano music by contemporary composers such as Philip Glass and Virgil Thompson.

Like a lot of other little girls, Grace began her dance career by taking Saturday ballet lessons. "The pretty piano music really got to me," she says. "It sort of transported me into another place."

But at some point the rigidity of ballet no longer interested her. "I was never really very good," she admits.

But while taking a bachelor's degree and an MFA in modern dance, "I eventually got good," Grace said.

She started out with a one-woman show. "Gradually I realized I wanted to have other dancers on stage with me."

Burning Feet has existed for 10 years and is one of the most active modern dance companies in the state. Last summer, some of its members performed in Germany.

In the workshops, Graces talks about how she creates movement and tries to help people get comfortable with movement in a general sense -- simply by walking around with a sense of rhythm.

"You don't have to learn steps," she said of the workshops.

The concerts are concerned with making people comfortable with dance as well.

"Sometimes people really question modern dance. `What is this weird thing?' That's why we open with a classical number," she said.

But modern dance really isn't weird in Grace's eyes. "A lot of the work we do is just generally charming," she said.