Katie Smith
Staff Reporter
The dancers moved to the steady tempo of a guitar, drawing out every movement as they expressed themselves to their audience.
As part of the McDaniel Dance Company’s annual spring performance on Saturday, April 4th, seven dancers performed an ensemble to live music playing the song “Stay or Leave” by the Dave Matthews Band. After frustration over problems with the sound system and exhaustion from rigorous performances prior to “Stay or Leave,” this piece invigorated the dancers, according to Mary Beth Bounds, the Dance Company’s president and a dancer in the ensemble. Megan Roach, another dancer, describes it as “electrifying.”
“It was a dialogue between the live music, the dancers, and the audience?. Everyone was on the same page artistically and emotionally,” says Bounds.
In all, twelve dancers took the stage that night to express themselves through styles ranging from ballet to break dance for the annual performance. It featured ten ensemble pieces and eight solos, and saw freestyle, hip-hop, jazz, ballet, contemporary, and modern dances, according to Bounds. The dancers often practiced ten hours a week to prepare for the performance.
The theme of the evening was “body language,” which Bounds says was chosen because it was broad enough to encompass the variety of styles that appeared in the production.
“We wanted it to be as open as possible to different types of expression,” says Bounds, so that the performance reflected the diversity of the Dance Company’s members this year.
Such diversity in dance styles has not always been present in the Dance Company. Bounds, now a senior, joined the Dance Company her freshman year. She says the company was just starting back up after having been inactive, and had about six to eight members with only one guy. Since then, the company has grown to twenty members, including three guys.
While the diversity in this year’s performance reflected the diversity of the company’s members, not all of the dancers were members of the company. Eric Tunder, a freshman, has worked with the company this year as a b-boy, the term for a person who breakdances. While not a member of the company, Tunder “b-boyed” in the opening piece to Lady Gaga’s song “Just Dance.” To his knowledge, Tunder says he is the only b-boy at the college.
“It was fun to bring in something we don’t normally do,” says Megan Roach of Tunder’s inclusion in the performance.
While the Dance Company’s annual spring performance is the culmination of the dancers’ work from the entire school year, it is not the company’s only performance this year. Bounds says the company performed at two charity events this year: the Vagina Monologues and the Up ’til Dawn event benefiting St. Jude’s.
Though the Dance Company put on several performances this year, the company is about more than just performing. “Dance Company is a network for dancers on campus. It’s an artistic venue and we accept anyone with or without a dance background,” says Bounds.
The fact that the company is an artistic venue can be seen not only in the dancers’ performances but also in the work that goes on behind the scenes. As a student-led organization, everything that comes out of the company, including the choreography, is a product of the hard work of students involved.
The hard work required to keep the Dance Company running is certainly worth it, if nothing else for the feeling one has when dancing.
“It’s kind of like a euphoria?. I’m 100 percent happy when I’m dancing,” Tunder says.
Anyone interested in becoming involved with the Dance Company next year can contact Anna Beers ( aeb008@mcdaniel.edu ) or Terre Martin ( trm004@mcdaniel.edu ).