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For the next few weeks, the Baylor Dance Company will have its hands full as it prepares for one of the busiest months of the year.
April marks three major performances for the company to include its Spring Showcase this weekend.
The company will also perform during StompFest today in between various acts of the program. This will be promptly followed by the annual Spring Showcase, which will be at 7 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday in Jones Theater of the Hooper-Schaefer Fine Arts Center.
Tickets for the event can be bought for $5 dollars at the Hooper-Schaefer theater box office.
The officers of the Baylor Dance Company emphasized that this event is not just for Baylor students. It is open to all audiences.
To top off the month, with various practices and workshops in between events, the company will perform at Diadeloso on April 18 in Fountain Mall. Specific times for this event have not been posted but will be free and open to the public.
Throughout the year the Baylor Dance Co. also performs at After Dark, the Waco Cultural Arts Festival, the Homecoming Parade, Late Night at the SLC and other small events.
Dallas senior Ingrid Nojoumian, treasurer of the Baylor Dance Company, said the next few weeks are always the busiest time of year. “On top of classes and tests we are in constant preparation for these shows,” she said.
Nojoumian said they have hour-long practices every Tuesday along with other practices throughout the week depending on the group’s schedule. “The closer it gets to performance days, the more frequent and harder the practices are,” she said.
Nojoumian said the main goal of the showcase is for the audience to make an emotional connection with the dancer. “There’s no particular theme for the show,” she said. “We just want the dancers to communicate with audience about something that they’ve experienced in their life or just their creativity. I think putting a theme to the show would limit that.”
Burley, Idaho, senior and president of the organization Shelly Danielson said the goal of the showcase is to show off what the dancers can do. “It’s about how well we’ve improved throughout the year and how well we’ve mastered the different types of choreography,” she said.
The company hosts guest choreographers from around Texas and participates in dance workshops through Out on a Limb Dance Company. Danielson said the choreographers give the company a chance to let the audience know that it strives to be professional.
“We try to impress the audience when they see a professional name on the program,” Danielson said. “It also helps the dancers stay motivated to master a routine that a professional can give us.”
The company holds auditions on campus in September and again in January if there are more dancers willing to try out.
On the company’s student organization website, www.baylor.edu/studentorgs/, it states that auditions involve basic movement warm-ups, jazz technique, a short ballet barre and a modern dance combination.
“We need people to have dance experience before the auditions. We like to have well-rounded dancers because that makes it more fun for the group as a whole,” Danielson said.
