Dance shows expression, feeling and emotion, and viewers had the chance to experience that outside on Dixie State University’s campus Thursday.
Opening their first dance concert, the DSU Modern Dance and Improvisation Club presented a site-specific dance known as Time/ Place/ Energy Thursday. Specific dances were choreographed by club members and Sara Gallo, assistant professor of dance, who created the scene for this new dance club at DSU.
“The intention of the dance was to show that dance can take place anywhere,” Gallo said. “We also wanted to promote the beauty and uniqueness of our campus.”
Time/ Place/ Energy dancers performed eight different choreographed dances all around DSU’s campus from the Eccles Fine Arts building, down to the Snow Science and Math Center, and ending at the fountain with 12 dance performers.
With an audience of approximately 40 people, the dancers performed religious, and Halloweenthemed dances while racing to different locations and changing outfits to perform the next piece. The last piece performed at the fountain with improvised music performed by Robert Matheson, assistant director of music, Glenn Webb, assistant professor of music, and DSU students.
“Dance is a way for me to give to others,” said Sukcha Choi, a senior dance major from Jeolla, South Korea, and member of the Modern Dance and Improvisation Club. “It’s almost like my missionary work.”
Gallo said the DSU Modern Dance and Improvisation Club started approximately three years ago but began at DSU this fall semester as a chartered club. Gallo said the club invites everyone to come visit and partake of the dance energy.
Tommy Hayes, a junior medical laboratory science major from St. George, is the husband of Linda Palmer Hayes, who choreographed the dance “Plague.”
“It took a lot of time to put this concert together, but they did really good, and I’m proud of my wife,” Hayes said. “The choreographed dance, the ‘Plague,’ was definitely my favorite, because I got to help pick the song.”
Gallo said approximately 60 percent of the concert was on-the-spot improvised. The group practiced in class for four hours a week for 10 weeks to practice different dance moves and to feel comfortable improvising on the spot.
Choi choreographed the dance “Hope for Resurrection” and said, “I am proud of the performers and love dancing with them and growing with them.”
The club meets every Tuesday 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. and Thursday 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.
“I am so proud of their performance,” Gallo said. “They did really good.”
