ST. GEORGE – The Modern Dance and Improvisational Club at Dixie State University, a relatively new club on campus, is working to make modern dance more accessible to students and the public by challenging the idea that dance can only be performed on a stage. To that end, the club will be performing a free concert on the university campus that will travel to various outdoor locations that will act as performance spaces.
The concert will take place Oct. 27 at 5 p.m. It will begin at the Kathryn Lloyd Richards Sculpture Garden near the Eccles Fine Arts Center. The dancers will then travel to different spaces throughout the campus. The concert will include a mixture of improvisational dance and choreographed modern dance pieces.
The Modern Dance and Improvisational Club informally began in 2012 when a group of university dance students approached the idea of putting together an improvisational dance for “Dixie’s Got Talent,” said Sara Gallo, an assistant dance professor at Dixie State and the club’s adviser.
From there, the club began performing at specific locations around the campus and recently officially became the Modern Dance and Improvisation Club. The group holds traditional performances, including a spring concert in the Eccles Black Box Theater, as well as site-specific events on campus.
For dance major Sam Keatley, practicing improvisational dance has been a great way to add more movement to his dance vocabulary, he said.
“I think it’s important for students to be able to have that extra opportunity outside of class working together forming comprehensive dances and finding out their movement expression in a group improvisation setting,” Keatley said.
Gallo said she hopes that the club will give students of varying abilities the opportunity to be part of an organization involving dance, one that is very inclusive.
Making modern dance more approachable for students and the general public is another aim of the improvisational club, which is partly the reason they take their performances outside of a traditional performance spaces such as a stage and bring it to places across campus.
The group has even performed while students travel between classes, Keatley said, and that has helped to make dance seem more like something the students can relate to.
“I think being in amongst people in that way can make dance seem more approachable,” Gallo said, adding that it allows people to see the many ways that modern dance can be manifested in a community.
The Modern Dance and Improvisation Club’s concert will begin at the Kathryn Lloyd Sculpture Garden outside the Eccles Fine Arts Center Oct. 27 at 5 p.m.. The dancers will then travel to different locations throughout the campus. The concert will include a mixture of improvisational dance and choreographed modern dance pieces.
Event details
- What: Dixie State University Improv and Modern Dance Club site-specific concert
- When: Thursday, Oct. 27, 5 p.m.
- Where: Concert begins at the Kathryn Lloyd Richards Sculpture Garden near the Eccles Fine Arts Center, DSU campus, 225 S. 700 East, St. George
- Cost: Free
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They better have a permit for that dancing, or we better see a STG new article about the S.W.A.T. team busting their heads in…
Yeah and that includes people getting arrested and tased and dragged into court for violating our decency codes.