VCU Dance seniors bow out with student-run showcase

Cory Johnson

Contributing Writer

VCU Dance concerts may be few and far apart, but never disappoint. The department’s senior showcase entitled EDGELESS is no exception.

Exploring dance and human movement with grace and elegance, this weekend’s concert was a brilliant display of creativity and skill by VCU Dance’s graduating class.

Taking place in VCU’s Grace Street Theater, the room was nearly packed on opening night as friends, family and faculty came to support the eight senior choreographers presenting their senior theses.

“We just wish that the rest of the student population would come out and see what it has to offer,” said senior choreographer and dancer Jaimè Dzandu.

The show started with a minimalist introduction as the lights dimmed to prompt the audience, and from then on it was set into motion, with an opening number that prepared viewers for what was to come.

Showing a wide variety of styles in what could be considered a modern dance performance, the show explored African, ballet and contemporary techniques — some work even incorporated gymnastic inspiration. These pieces covered topics from Hurricane Katrina inaction, to eating disorders, to homelessness; not only stimulating the eye but also the mind.

“Movement is just a part of me. It’s my language of choice,” Dzandu said when discussing her love for dance and her contribution to the show, which was a piece called “Watermark” that expressed her sentiments toward the response to the disaster in New Orleans.

This show was presented as the senior capstone for Dance and Choreography majors and was a year in the making. As juniors last spring, each choreographer submitted a proposal for their work, which were then approved by faculty for their final senior thesis. The show was completely student-run, produced, choreographed and publicized.

The night ended with a quirky video chronicling the seniors’ day up till the group bow. After a showcase of the beauty in human moment, senior Ronnique Murray summed up the event by saying, “You dance and whatever comes out of you, it shows.”

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