Most classes revolve around a course syllabus and a textbook to teach its students. This one relies on passion.
Zodiaque Dance Company, UB's performing company for dance majors is presenting its spring semester showcase for its 38th season beginning this Thursday. This showcase will present an eclectic display of eight dances created from a variety of choreographers, stemming from the talents of 25 BFA and BA dance majors who auditioned for the company.
Managing Director Tressa Gorman Crehan says it will provide an innovative array of influential dances.
"A lot of the pieces have theatrical elements and a little more drama in their approaches to their message and the choreographic process," Crehan said. "It's not real commercial and the pieces that we have for this concert are a little more sophisticated in some of their thought processes and the way the choreographers approached it."
Zodiaque Dance Company is a class, preceded by an audition in the fall semester to select students. It is a full year commitment with the students meeting multiple times per week with the end of semester show as a final result of their work.
The audition consists of ballet, modern, jazz, and improvisation, and is conducted and judged by the dance faculty. The company's goal is to produce diverse dancers.
Crehan enlists choreographers to create the eight-piece showcase for the performance. The diversity of the pieces for the concert includes one repertory piece that was performed the previous semester, and the creations of faculty members. The company also strives to reflect the artistry of two or three guest artists per semester as well.
After the choreographers are selected, the company's artistic director, Tom Ralabate, distinguishes how the dances mesh with the proposed pieces, and then casts and schedules the pieces for choreography.
The diversity is not only presented in the different dance styles, but in the choreographic styles as well. Guest choreographers bring in repertory performances, while some faculty members like to build process pieces ahead of time to teach to students. As a result, both the dancers' and choreographers' dance styles are enhanced.
Crehan choreographed a process piece for this semester's showcase where she further developed the piece with the dancers. She encouraged students to contribute physical material and choreographic concepts, which shaped her original dance material, and incorporated it into her work.
In addition to the pieces provided by the choreographers, two students in the company will also debut their choreographic talents, like that of Lawanda Hopkins and Elijah Coleman, a senior BFA acting and dance major.
Originally presented in Ralabate's Jazz 5, Hopkins and Coleman's piece was two minutes long, but with the assistance of faculty mentors including Ralabate and Crehan, the piece developed into a seven-minute performance that still maintained their original concept.
"It grabbed our souls and pulled it out of our bodies, so we just started coming up with concepts, ideas, [and] intentions of our dance," Coleman said. "We took it to class and performed it for our final project, and our professor, Mr. Tom Ralabate, loved it."
As well as dancing in the showcase, some dancers also participate in designing the costumes.
Kate Kenyon, one of the company's dancers and a junior BFA dance major, designed a costume for Crehan's piece in the showcase – "Push." Kenyon worked with Donna Massimo, the costume shop manager at the CFA, and collaborated with Crehan to reflect what costume would go well with the partnering, style, and movement of the dance.
Besides the entertainment aspect of the showcase, the students realize the educational facet of performing in the company.
"I enjoy the knowledge part of it, the learning aspect of Zodiaque, the skills you get from it…being in Zodiaque you learn a lot as well and you're able to put those skills to use quicker," Coleman said. "You learn it, you grasp it, you take it in, you feed off it, it nurtures you, and [then] you're on stage."
Angela Siler, a senior BFA dance major is in her last semester as a performer for the company, and was encouraged to improve as a dancer throughout her Zodiaque experience.
"We never do the same kind of piece twice in this company," Siler said. "[The faculty] makes sure when they're doing casting that they give [the dancers] a lot of different experiences to push [the dancers] to really be as diverse…as possible."
The prominent pieces include Melanie Aceto's "Cloud," Crehan's "Push," in addition to Coleman and Hopkins' duet. Other works presented will feature choreography from Joe Celej, Leanne Rinelli, and Jon Lehrer who are UB alumni and were once part of the Zodiaque Dance Company.
Zodiaque Dance Company will present six shows starting this coming Thursday and will run until March 4.
Email: arts@ubspectrum.com
