Now in its eleventh season, Dance Alabama! is a student-organized and choreographed concert designed to expose audiences to the culture of dance while exhibiting the talent of UA students.
The 2010 fall concert, which will be held Tuesday through Friday in Morgan Auditorium at 7:30 p.m., will strap audiences into an emotional roller coaster through 19 student performances.
“That’s kind of weird in this Facebook generation,” said Cornelius Carter, director of Alabama’s dance department. “The students are speaking from a very emotional space, and it’s very real and honest. It just speaks to you.”
Each student involved in the show has something to say, which shines through in each performance in the dancing, choreography, music choices, costumes, set designs and lighting designs. The variety of styles and moods that radiate between each blackout brings something new to the table.
“We promise audiences one thing—there will be something for everyone here,” Carter said.
The concert opens with a number choreographed to the upbeat gospel hit “Joyful, Joyful.” Then immediately the concert takes a downward turn and thrusts the audience into Johnny Cash’s mournful folk rock song, “Hurt.”
“One thing I love about what we instill in our program is the diversity of styles,” Carter said. “I think the strength of the concert is the push for each student to find their own strength.”
Savannah Reach, a freshman majoring in dance and chemistry and the youngest dancer in the program at 17 years old, said Dance Alabama! is unlike any show she has ever performed in. Reach began her college career at the University after dancing in a Dallas company called SoulEscape and traveling all over the world to compete and perform.
“Nothing compares to dancing in a show where your fellow dancers are the actual choreographers,” Reach said. “Although I am a freshman and the youngest, it was not difficult for me to transition into the UA dance department because of the support and acceptance I received from both the faculty and the other dancers. I already knew many of the faculty and dancers from numerous competitions and dance classes. I truly feel that the dance department welcomes all students and strives to make their dancers feel at home.”
Reach is performing in the contemporary piece “Speak,” choreographed by Jennifer Petenbrink and in the jazz/contemporary final number of the show, “The Wall Between,” choreographed by Joy Spears.
“It gives me a sense of hope to know that one day I’ll be able to choreograph in Dance Alabama!, where the faculty and the dancers in my dance will be positive and open to my ideas,” Reach said.
Joy Spears, majoring in dance and journalism, also came to the University with a bulk of dancing experience under her belt. After competing on the second season of the Fox television series “So You Think You Can Dance,” she moved to Los Angeles to pursue a professional career and worked on the sets of films, music videos, commercials and awards shows. This summer she was elected as one of 21 finalists to compete in the Capezio Award for Choreographic Excellence Awards.
“This experience as a choreographer inspired me even more to push myself to new levels, which is what I have done this semester,” Spears said. “Many people would ask what style my piece is and my best answer is that it is not one style. It is fused with every style I have been exposed to. My contemporary and jazz choreography is strongly influenced by hip-hop, especially after living in Los Angeles. The worst mistake an artist can make is to limit [himself or herself] to a ‘style.’”
Spears said it was tough working with the schedules of the 15 dancers she cast in her piece “The Wall Between,” and also with the rolling wall prop the dance focuses on, but that the journey to the finished product was well worth the stress.
“I believe in choreographing with no limitations,” she said. “That is when the true art comes out. It has been an adventurous process, but I have learned a great deal and it has come together well. The stage is like home to me. I love it, so being able to be up there and do what I love is such an adrenaline rush.”
The road to the final performance is a long one for Dance Alabama! After having campus-wide auditions, the choreographers pick their dancers and music and then work for weeks to put everything together.
Jamarious Stewart, a senior majoring in dance and the president of Dance Alabama!, said that seeing the finished project is the best thing about the show.
“In the final performances, people do their best and we have an audience to feed off of,” he said. “We’ve been waiting a long time for this and on stage, that’s when it all comes together.”
If you Go
What: Dance Alabama!
Where: Morgan Auditorium
When: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday-Friday
Cost: $12 for students, $18 for adults
