Choreographer’s Showcase Performance

By Laura Crowley

This weekend, students will perform dances that range from modern, jazz, tap, ballet, hip-hop and Irish dance in the annual Choreographer’s Showcase. This dance performance is directed by Samantha Gosnell ’13 and Catharine Cipolla ’14 and features dances choreographed by students and professors alike.

While professors do contribute to the performances, the event largely reflects students’ personal work.

“The Dance Department allows [dancers] to operate autonomously,” Elyas Deen ’13 said. “They allow us to explore concepts important to us. Yet efforts from other members of the community are still present, as alumni guest artists and dance faculty have contributed to the choreography.”

Choreographers were selected by members of the dance department: Associate Professors of Dance Kelly Knox and Er-Dong Hu, and Assistant Professor of Theatre & Dance Dustyn Martincich.

According to Cipolla, the dancers were selected in an audition that consisted of “a warm up, combinations across the floor and then a final short combination made up of a few phrases of dance.” In the end, students were asked to improvise in order to show off their personal styles. After watching the dancers, students of the Dance Composition class, the student choreographers and faculty members selected dancers. Dancers from the Bucknell Dance Company are not allowed to participate in the dances, yet they do comprise some of the choreographers.

“The dancers in the Dance Composition class have never choreographed at Bucknell before,” Cipolla said.

The novelties in the performance will bring “new ideas, themes and creativity to each of their dances” Deen said. The work that will be presented is a “kinesthetic representation of how we understand our world and relationships with others, from the joyous to the somber,” Deen said.

This representation is extended to costumes that were selected to best match the themes of each dance piece. According to Cipolla, the costumes vary by piece since each dance tells a different story.

“Each semester presents a unique experience because there are different dancers, different choreographers and different motives,” Cipolla said. 

The performance will be held in the Tustin Theatre tonight at 8 p.m. and tomorrow at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Tickets are $5 and may be purchased at the Box Office or at the door in cash.