Dance concert is full of energy

“Dance Sites 2012: Faculty Dance Concert” serves as a prism for contemporary dance, separating it into a rainbow of styles and themes.

Seven choreographers will present seven dance pieces that cover folklorico, modern styles and everything in between at Sacramento State’s University Theatre.

Performances are at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday, Oct. 17 and 18 at 8 p.m. and Friday and Saturday, Oct. 19 and 20; and 2 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 20 and 21.

“There’s a lot of variety in this show,” said dancer Angela Bolivar. “You get so many different aspects of a choreographer’s mind.”

“Dance Sites” is the only time the students and choreographers get to work in the University Theatre — Sacramento State’s main stage. Other dance concerts during the year are held in the much smaller Solano Hall Dancespace.

“So once a year, the dancers get to experience a true proscenium stage, a larger audience and a higher production value,” said the director of “Dance Sites,” Professor Lorelei Bayne. “On the main stage, we can do things with lighting and other equipment that we cannot do in Solano Hall.”

Bayne’s piece is titled “Ordinary Woman,” inspired by Marge Piercy’s poem “The Woman in the Ordinary,” and features five female performers who begin the routine in hoop skirts, accompanied by percussion music by Tigger Benford.

“I was looking at women’s issues, thinking about how to make a metaphorical statement about the dual nature of being a woman, being strong versus submissive,” said Bayne.

Bolivar and Carmen Kuykendall are two of the dancers in Bayne’s piece.

“We’re working with the image of a cage in the hoop skirt,” said Bolivar. “There’s lots of constrictive movement. A lot of gestural work.”

“Then the hoop skirts come off and the movement gets bigger as we break out of the confines of the skirt,” Kuykendall said.

Professor Osvaldo Ramirez is choreographing “Jarabe Mixteco” and “Flor de Piña” into one folklorico piece featuring dancers Sarah Miersch and Diego Campos.

The style of dance and music is a rich mixture of different cultures in Mexico over the years, from indigenous people to the Spanish and even African themes, Ramirez said. “The mixture of all this music and cultures and languages and food and costumes created what Mexican and folkloric ways are today.”

The moves in Campos’ and Miersch’s duet are very aerobic.

“We have to be on our toes a lot,” Campos said. “We have to jump. Skip. We have to turn a lot. At the end of the piece, each of us does 20 spins.”

“It’s pretty high energy,” said Miersch.

Other choreographers are Nolan T’Sani, Linda Goodrich, Philip Flickinger, Lisa Ross, and special guest Lori Bryhni, a nationally recognized choreographer who teaches at Modesto Junior College. With all that talent, there will definitely be a lot of variety.

“There are things that everyone’s going to be wowed by,” said Kuykendall. “There are people flying off of chairs, crazy costumes, tons of music — something for everyone.”

Tickets for the 6:30 p.m. performances are $8 general, students and seniors; and $5 for children under 12 years of age. Other performances are $12 general, $10 students and seniors, and $8 children.

Tickets are available at the University Ticket Office, 916-278-4323.

For more information visit csus.edu/dram.