One of the disheartening aspects of college for many students is the inability to participate in certain sports and clubs. Whether this is due to the much larger pool of athletes vying to make the roster or perhaps people not having the free time, for most, college signals the end of playing in Friday night football games or going on DECA trips to the State Capitol. In the world of dance, this trend is no different.
?Some people go out to New York or out to Los Angeles, and they just throw themselves into it,? said University of Wisconsin dancer Dawn Miller, a junior. Along with UW seniors Allison Schoen and Amber Jackson, the trio managed to escape the somber option of discontinuing their passion within the all-too-small niche for dance in Madison?s performing arts landscape.
?It?s so nice to have that opportunity if you?re not majoring in dance, but it?s been such a huge part of your life,? said Schoen, who, like Miller, debuted on the stage when she was three years old.
Miller, Schoen and Jackson are part of Jazzworks Dance Company, a highly skilled troupe of 12 dancers (of which they are the only students) whose great appeal rests in their accessibility to audiences. On Feb. 1-2, the group will present their biggest show of the year at the Middleton Performing Arts Center, using an eclectic mix of jazz, modern and contemporary ballet styles to tell stories of relationships, friendship and personal strength through movement.
Jazzworks is helmed under the direction of Carol Marion Ceniti, who has orchestrated all skill levels of dance at the Madison Professional Dance Center studio, home of Jazzworks, for the last 23 of its 28 years in existence. Earning her B.S. from UW-Madison in physical education and dance, Ceniti?s choreography has been described as athletic and energetic, but at the same time ?delicate.? Miller explains, ?You can use your strength to show other, more delicate movements.?
Preparation for the upcoming show began in September, with four to five hours logged at the studio twice a week. With so much effort put into nailing these routines, the performance is sure to be not only flawless, but well-crafted and entertaining.
?You don?t want to go to a show and say, ?Oh, I could do that in my living room,?? Miller said. After attending a costume rehearsal for the event, this writer can attest that audiences will certainly be thinking nothing of the sort.
The evening is titled ?Short Stories? and is an assortment of 11 dances loosely connected by similar themes, each of which was composed by various Jazzworks members.
Schoen describes working with a professional dance company as an incredible experience. About teaching ?Happing Ending,? one of her dances, she remembers, ?It was kind of daunting to go in having never worked with them before and go, ?OK, this is my dance, here you go.? But they are all so welcoming.? The dance is a beautiful lyrical work about having friends to lean on when love hurts the most.
Schoen was also approached by Ceniti to create a second dance with high-energy and pizzazz. The end result is ?Walk the Walk,? a fun hip-hop number performed in flashy black and white striped costumes and set to the electronic beats of Poe. The dance carries encouraging messages about standing up for one?s morals and living without regret.
Miller says she stepped ?way outside the box? in putting together her dance ?Luminous Love.? Coming from a ballet and lyrical dance background, Miller sets the tone for the classic story of a man who leaves his love to go to war by dividing the piece into two parts. The first, more upbeat half plays to Nat King Cole?s ?Orange Colored Sky? and concludes with ?Ain?t No Sunshine? by Eva Cassidy. Miller said, ?I was always watching Gene Kelly, Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire movies, and, growing up, it was fun trying to imitate that style and show appreciation for it now.?
Other dances include ?Punctuations,? a comedic work about the aforementioned grammatical elements, and, conversely, ?St. Teresa,? a very dark and emotional story of pain and addiction. Props are used in ?Infinity,? which adds a whole new element to the show. Choreographed by Ceniti, this modern piece incorporates giant, brightly-colored ?spine? balls that the dancers must toss, stand on or spin in a variety of visually stunning ways. Set to intense drumbeats, the dance is both profoundly technical and graceful.
?What I?ve been impressed with in Jazzworks? performances in the past is the variety and the well-roundedness of the dancers? ? that they can step out into these different genres of movement and show that there?s strength in all of those different places,? Schoen said.
So go home and try executing a graceful pirouette (key word graceful) in your living room if you like, but chances are you will have leaps and bounds more fun watching these incredible dancers do what they do best.
Tickets are $10 and $15 and are available at the Madison Professional Dance Center or at the door. Each show begins at 8 p.m.
