If Ball State University dance majors want to graduate, they must choreograph a dance and perform it at the senior choreography showcase, which runs three days this weekend.
The sixteenth annual showcase will be today and Saturday at 7:30 p.m., and Sunday at 2:30 p.m. in the Ball Gym Korsgaard Dance Studio Room 213.
Eleven seniors had to create their own dance, senior Jeanna Mynes said.
"We had auditions in August for students who wanted to dance in our piece," Mynes said. "Any student could have auditioned, not just dance and theater majors."
Each choreographer had five to nine dancers with rehearsals two times a week for about two hours, she said. Rehearsals have lasted about eight weeks with Wednesday and Thursday serving as dress rehearsals for the entire show.
The minimum requirements for each dance were at least five minutes but no more than ten minutes of material, Sarah Mangelsdorf, professor of dance, said. The piece had to be an original composition and could be any form of dance such as jazz, modern or ballet, she said.
"A lot of the pieces are a fusion of many forms such as hip-hop and modern or hip-hop and ballet," she said. "An audience would find a variety to see not just in the dance forms, but in the music that is chosen for the pieces as well."
The process takes a long time and involves coming up with an idea, finding music, and then -¡-¡-once the auditions are over- putting the idea into a physical picture, senior Veronica Day said.
"It's interesting to see both sides of the process," she said. "I've learned how you can be a better dancer from choreographing and, in turn, be a better choreographer from dancing."
The show will last approximately one-and-a-half hours with a 10-minute intermission. Tickets are $5 and are available at the University Theatre Box Office, or one hour before the show begins.
The hope is that students will learn the basics of putting together a production and being able to speak with people about their work, Mangelsdorf said. Seniors also learn the rehearsal and production processes and gain a little more confidence putting dances together and doing movements, she said.
"This group is especially talented and have taken interesting approaches to the material," Mangelsdorf said. "The choreographers have been wonderful to watch. The most important thing we hope the students get out of this show is that they find their own voice in their own work and find their own style."
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