Dance students to perform four days of concerts


Ballet, hip-hop, modern dance and theatrical story dance will be the dance styles performed by 23 students at the University Theatre Dance Company concert at 7:30 p.m. from April 21 to 23 and at 2 p.m. on April 24 in Bush Theatre.

Choreographers Andrea Purrenhage, Bethany Hepworth, Ricky "Bird" Clarkson, Keeley Stanley-Bohn and Heather Trommer-Beardslee have all collaborated to put together the dance concert.

Tickets can be purchased in advance from Ticket Central in the CMU Events Center, or by phone at 989-774-3045. Cost of tickets is $7 for students and seniors and $9 for the general public. Tickets can also be purchased online and will be charged an additional delivery fee. Tickets can be purchased at the door for $10.

Each dance performed is choreographed by a dance faculty member and is taught to each group of dancers.

Students in the fall semester are allowed to choreograph their own dance and one or two of the performances get picked by dance faculty members to be a part of the spring show.

Troy junior Samantha Messina was the only student whose choreography will be performed in concert.

“I was so excited when Heather told me I was going to have my piece in the spring concert,” Messina said.

Southfield junior LeeAnna Veasey has been dancing for about ten years now and wants to continue her dancing once she graduates, but wants to focus on her major — finance — to become a CFO one day.

“When I’m dancing I want the audience to believe me — my character. I want them to love or hate my character because that means I’m doing it right. I want to make it look effortless,” Veasey said.

Of the 23 dancers, each on average is in two to three dances in the concert.

“The reason why I got into performing was because whenever you do a show you’re escaping yourself and becoming a different entity and you learn more about yourself,” says Alpena freshman Dylan Goike.

Auditions were held for the concert the first three days of school in the fall semester. About 70 dancers auditioned.

Rehearsals began back in January where the dancers would practice two to four hours a week per dance, until two weeks before the performance in where practices kicked into high gear and practice was held daily.

“Audience should expect an evening of surprises," Trommer-Beardslee said.

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