Fall for Dance showcases faculty and student work

It all started in August. What has been over three months of textbook reading and note taking for some, has been over three months of pointe shoes, pirouettes and fouettés for Southeast Missouri State University's dance faculty and students.

They will present Fall for Dance 2011 this week as their three months of preparation come to a close. The concert includes a mix of dance faculty and student work.

According to Fall for Dance artistic coordinator Philip Edgecombe, when the department only had around four majors, a fall dance concert used to take place, but it was more of a student concert with only some faculty work. The department also produced one large dance concert every spring, entitled Danceapalooza.

"As our program started growing we needed to have two dance concerts a year," Edgecombe said. "So we took away the fall dance concert and made it Fall for Dance and changed the name from Danceapalooza to Spring into Dance, so that they became two main stage shows with all the bells and whistles and lights and sparkles and costumes and everything."

Tap, jazz, contemporary, modern and ballet pieces will be performed at the concert by around 40 dancers.

"Stylistically, we're all over the board," Edgecombe said.

Fall for Dance choreographer Michelle Contrino said some of the dances will be lighthearted and fun, while others will be serious.

"It's really all different," Contrino said. "We performed at First Friday, and we were all kind of sitting around going, 'Wow, this is a really good mix.'

Thomas Proctor lifts Chance Hill in a battle scene in "After the Sky Opened." - Photo by Kelso Hope

"I think it's a good mix, and I think, since I've been here, it's probably the best representation of everything we do."

Four student choreographers out of the 11 that auditioned were chosen to showcase their pieces in the concert, all of which Edgecombe said are the strongest student choreographers he's seen since the beginning of Fall for Dance.

Southeast senior dance major Thomas Proctor is one of the student choreographers. This is his fifth dance concert at Southeast and his second time choreographing a piece.

"Being able to choreograph allows you to look at dance from a different perspective, which allows you to open your mind, which allows you to take a broader sense of art," Proctor said. "So instead of limiting myself to one aspect, I'm now able to do multiple things."

In addition to faculty and student choreographers, the department received a grant from the Missouri Arts Council to bring in guest artist Adam Sage. Sage is the founder and artistic director for the Missouri Ballet Theatre, a professional dance company in St. Louis. His piece, "Masquerade" will open the concert.

Southeast freshman dance and mass media major Calla Kaufmann is one of the dancers in Sage's piece.

"I'd never done anything at SEMO before, so it was kind of overwhelming at first, but it's amazing to see the process of having a professional choreographer come into our school," Kaufmann said.

Both Kaufmann and Contrino mentioned that Sage's piece is done on pointe, or on one's toes. It is a classical ballet piece, which Kaufmann said is new for her.

"It's pushed them in that aspect, but I think all the people who are in his cast have grown from doing it," Contrino said.

Something else has grown out of Sage's time here at Southeast. Contrino said Sage plans to extend an invite to a few students to come and audition for his company after graduation.

Edgecombe said the department also tries to invite artists and dance companies from St. Louis to the concert to get the word out about the dancers, but it focuses on sending work out to festivals, like Dancing in the Streets, National Dance Week and Spring to Dance in St. Louis.

"We're trying to get students out to these more professional venues rather than people necessarily coming to recruit," Edgecombe said.

Fall for Dance 2011 will be held at 7:30 p.m. Thursday through Saturday in the Donald C. Bedell Performance Hall at the River Campus, with an early performance at 2 p.m. on Saturday as well.

"The students have worked so hard for this, and they've really done a great job," Contrino said. "And I think that it would be great for the community to come support dance the same way that they support the other arts in the community, whether it's visual arts or performing arts."

Edgecombe also said he believes the students are both mentally and physically ready for opening night.

"They're ready to show off," he said. "They're ready to perform. They're ready to shine."