By Anne Hall
Design Editor
As the spring semester concludes and the heat begins to rise, Dr. Karen Schaffman and the Cougar dance department follow through with their promise to provide spectators with one amazing dance compilation for the Twelfth Annual Spring Dance Concert.
Audiences cheered and were motivated to dance in their seats as CSUSM students presented their semester of hard work creating hip hop, modern, improvisation, ballet, jazz, etc. that combined reading, literature, writing, music and visual aesthetics from other artistic disciplines created from various students on campus.
With the help of Professor Sandra Doller’s Literature and Writing students, students from very different fields of study were brought together to invent stories that could be told through text and visually. The result: a dramatic, humorous, yet tantalizing presentation of combined art forms that focused on both sight and sound.
“The dances are always different in reflection of the choreographers. In this case, the students who are creating the work,” Dr. Schaffman said, as the final performance was being revealed.
Like promised, the new Choreography Workshop course that was offered for the first time this spring, delivered a one of a kind performance that reinvented Anne Teresa De Keeresmaeker’s presentation of RE: Rosas! The fABULEUS Rosas Remix. The dance department took full advantage of Keeresmaeker’s challenge to recreate her choreographic work and developed a strong and moving creation that focuses on personal growth and observation. The recording of this creation can be seen with the more than 200 videos created from all over the world in response to the challenge. More information for this movement can be found athttp://www.rosasdanstrosas.be/en-home/.
What a way to end the semester; let alone a college career. Various graduating seniors helped to create and present this performance. Among them are Yessette Navarrete, Maria Apudaca, Rhiannon Jeglin and Kenia Vargas. All of which have departing remarks for being a part of the dance community at CSUSM:
“I’m sad that I have to go because I really enjoy doing the dance shows. This show is my third year doing it. This is my final show and I am really going to miss it. I’ve worked a lot with Karen and she has been my dance instructor, I guess you could say, and I’ve learned a lot from her and she’s helped to make me aware of things I didn’t even know about my own body. I would like to say thank you to her for giving me the opportunity to express myself through this medium and allowing me to make my ideas come alive. For always supporting everything and just never rejecting an idea,” graduating Visual and Performing Arts major, Yessette Navarrete, said.
“I am very excited for this performance. It’s my first time performing and it’s like the icing on the cake for me graduating and having this chance. Karen…it’s so amazing to work with her. She just helps you to flow with your own movements and flow as your own person without having to invade your style. She just develops you and just lets you know how great you’re doing while letting you know how you can fix things here and there. It’s an amazing experience working with her,” a performer in many of the routines created through the DNCE 390 Choreography Workshop class, Maria Apudaca, said.
“I’m excited for all that is to come in life. Everybody should take dance,” a very active contributor to dance at CSUSM, Rhiannon Jeglin, said.
“I’ve been participating in dance classes and performances for three years. It has taken me to levels that I didn’t know that my body could go and I’m feeling relieved and grateful that I’m actually graduating. Dance has helped me to be more committed to my work,” Human Development major, Kenia Vargas, said.
Congratulations to the graduates and to the Dance department for an amazing finish.