Spring Into Dance 2014, which opened April 10 to a crowd of about 100 people, showed off the energy and skill of Southeast Missouri State University's dancers.
The show, which was less than an hour and a half long, featured seven dances over two acts.
The first piece was "Sound Effects," which was choreographed by guest choreographer Sam Watson. The piece contained 12 dancers who entertainingly embodied horses, car engines, and riders on a roller coaster as the dance went on. The performance was a circus, an interpretive dance and a Warner Brothers cartoon combined, complete with rainbow-colored socks.
"Sound Effects" was followed by Zak McMahon's piece "Hozho." Hozho is a Navajo concept of beauty and harmony. The dance featured Brandace Anderson, Hannah Matheney, and Lauren Tustanowsky. The dance slowly built with repetition, giving the dance a smooth and fluid quality that contrasted well after the comedy of "Sound Effects"
Corey Meyer's piece "Apparatus" starred Jordan McDaniel and Connor Sullivan in costumes that transformed them into mechanical machines. The two dancers, who worked particularly well together, seemed to be representing the different processes in a factory through sharp and angular movements.
Next was Leshay Mathis' piece "Bows Before Bros" which started with the dancers facing the audience as if they were checking their appearance in the mirror. They slowly introduced body percussion, before blasting "Shake the Room" by Gamu. The most contemporary dance of the concert exploded with energy and attitude from the six women, and let each of them their moment to shine.
The first act ended with the second guest artist piece, "Building Danger" by Jan Bartoszek. The piece featured an interesting level of fluidity where the five dancers, all dressed in white, were almost always doing separate things, yet they always remained connected to each other.
The second act began with "Un Cambio de Ritimo (A Change of Pace)" choreographed by Laura Goeing. The jazz number was influenced a lot by traditional Spanish dancing, and created a great mix of styles.
"Things Ain't What They Used to Be Audrey" choreographed by Dr. Marc Strauss followed with a great commitment to it's style. The number invoked jazz in the 1950s through it's music and costumes, and used its lighting well, having the four dancers go in and out of light at times. At one point, the dancers were all dramatically in silhouette.
"Fuse" by faculty member Hilary Peterson, was spectacularly performed by Sam Fink. The only solo dance in the show was filled with enough energy and talent to fill the entire stage.
The concert ended with its most ambitious piece, "Waters of the Hellespont" by faculty member Philip Edgecombe. They dance told the intimate and tragic love story between two people who live in different countries and are separated by a large river. Yet while it was the small story between these two lovers, 20 dancers performed the piece. The highly stylized piece made good use of the dancers and led to them creating multiple stunning images on the stage.
Spring Into Dance was performed at 7:30 p.m. April 10-12 and at 2 p.m. on April 13 at the Donald C. Bedell Performance Hall at the River Campus. Tickets were $3 with a Southeast student ID and are $16 otherwise.
