By
Lisa Lucas
Arizona Daily Wildcat
UA dance presents array of student, faculty choreography in "Spring Collection"
Spring fever is annually noted for promoting the phenomenon known as "spring cleaning."
In the UA dance department, however, spring fever appears to have hit students with a desire to create new dance choreography.
In two separate shows with two separate casts, the University of Arizona's dance division's final season concert, "Spring Collection," will feature some of this new student choreography along with new and returning choreography by faculty members.
Dance graduate student Marlene Skog will showcase her master's project at this season's show in a re-staging of a piece she choreographed for last year's "Spring Collection" concert.
The piece, an eight-minute solo titled "Passages," made its debut in last season's show as a modern piece, performed by UA dance sophomore Claire Hancock.
She will perform "Passages" once again during this Spring Collection's Saturday performances - only this time the piece will be performed "en pointe," or with pointe shoes.
"I choreographed it on her (Hancock) in the modern genre last year," Skog said. "Now it will be interesting to see the same person do it on pointe - (to see) how it affects that dancer."
Skog went on to describe the transition of "Passages" from modern to pointe by comparing it to a musical transposition.
"What I did was take ("Passages") and transpose it onto pointe in order to see how it looks when you change the idiom," she said. "It's like if you were taking a piece of music that was composed for violin and you transposed it to the piano. What (does) it sound like? Does it change the feeling of the piece because you've changed instruments?"
Skog went on to say she wanted to see not only how the transition from modern to pointe affects the dancer, but how it affects the choreographer as well.
"My examination is (on) what happens to the piece (with) the change from modern to ballet," she said. "What kind of compromises the choreographer has to make - the dancer has to make - in order to create artistic integrity."
Skog said she made no changes to the choreography of "Passages," but adding the element of pointe intensified the piece nonetheless.
Melissa Lowe, assistant dance professor, agreed, saying the pointe shoe facilitates more emphasis on the movement than did bare feet.
She added that "Passages" was the "most physically challenging piece" of the "Spring Collection" dance line up.
"(It) pushes the envelope, being really technical (and) dramatically holding - it really captivates the viewer," she said.
Along with Skog's "Passages" will be an array of other graduate and undergraduate choreography, as well as some faculty work.
Lowe said some of the faculty work for "Spring Collection" will include pieces showcased during the dance department's last concert, "Premium Blend."
Saturday's shows will have repeated performances of "English Suite," choreographed by Lowe and Jory Hancock, head of UA's dance division. Tomorrow and Friday nights' performances will re-stage assistant dance professor Amy Ernst's "Twisted Tango," along with assistant dance professor Susan Quinn's "Modern Cool."
Lowe said that although these pieces will make return appearances, the casts of the pieces will have changed in order to allow more dance students to perform.
She added this season has been "amazing" and said the department has not seen a stronger group of dancers in previous years.
"We're really excited about where we are right now," she said. "(I) completely credit the students as being the catalyst for that - they're stimulating the faculty to push (themselves) and do more mature work - (our students) are right up there with the caliber of professional dance companies."
Students will perform "Spring Collection" tomorrow, Friday and Saturday nights at 8 p.m. along with a Saturday matinee at 2 in the Ina E. Gittings Dance Theater. Tickets are $7 for students. Call 621-1162 for more information.
