You won’t hear standard radio hits accompanying this year’s December dance concert.
Ten Dixie State University senior dance students will be choreographing their final project and performing Monday and Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. in the Dolorés Dore Eccles Fine Arts Center. This will be the first dance concert fully choreographed and run by students.
Sam Keatley, a junior dance major from Orem and one of the choreographers for the dance concert, said a student-ran concert will be held every fall to help students prepare for their careers in the professional world and grow in all areas of dancing.
The dance concert will showcase different pieces, mostly personal to each choreographer in the concert. The pieces range from religious to strictly examining the motions of dance and allowing the audience to evaluate their own feelings and connection with the music and moves of the dance.
Andrew Jimenez, a senior dance major from San Diego, is putting together a dance called “Trifecta.”
“This concert gives me a chance to break out of my comfort zone and expand on my understanding,” Jimenez said. “My piece is for the eye of the viewer to decide what it is about through the movements in the piece.”
Jimenez will be performing with his wife, Ashley Jimenez, a senior dance major from Hurricane. She said she is excited for this opportunity and will be one of the first students to graduate with the 2015-approved dance degree.
“Dance is always open for interpretation,” Andrew Jimenez said.
“And sometimes that is the goal of it all,” Ashley Jimenez finished.
Keatley and Ashley Jimenez both said preparation for this concert has been a little hectic.
Alivia Snow, a senior dance major from St. George, said it’s the classes, organizing time with every student and learning how she personally choreographs others that makes this tough.
Snow has been dancing since she was three years old. She said she has always chosen slower, more peaceful songs and wanted to change that up for this last time for something new.
“My dance is called ‘Unfamiliar,’” Snow said. “I usually choreograph dances that have a lot of meaning to them, and I wanted to do something completely different. So this is something very unfamiliar to me.”
Snow said choreographing is like putting together all of the dance moves that you like and “making your own recipe.” It’s creating something you know and adding your own new style to it.
