One Stage combines USU dance teams
Party Rock, Broadway, Seven Nation Army, flashy costumes, Florence and The Machine, Twilight and a grand, emotional finale are some of the things that can be expected from the upcoming One Stage performance presented by campus dance troupes Full Circle, Vilociti and My Bad Crew.
“It is called One Stage because we are highlighting all sorts of different types of dance and styles of dance,” said Krissy Fry, artistic director and founder of the USU dance companies. “The thing that’s really unique about our companies is we all donate our time. They don’t get scholarships, we do all of our own fundraising. So it’s really just about celebrating the passion that we all have for dance.”
Currently in its fifth season, Fry said the event is held every spring as the final performance of the year put together by the dance companies.
Fry founded Full Circle dance company five years ago, she said. Vilociti was founded a year after Full Circle started and My Bad Crew started last semester.
“I started the companies because I was a dancer that was stuck here at Utah State and felt like I had nowhere to go,” she said. “When I was a student, I started the dance companies to give other dancers who wanted to continue their passion for the art somewhere to go.”
Lindsey Mickelsen, a sophomore majoring in social work who is also assistant director of Full Circle dance company, said she choreographed a few of the dance routines for the show.
She also said some of the hardest aspects of rehearsing for the show include being frustrated with others because everyone is restless. Dancers also get incredibly tired from long hours of practicing, she said.
For the past couple weeks the groups have been practicing from 3-10 p.m. without dinner breaks, she said.
“My body feels like it’s going to fall apart,” she said. “It’s really emotionally and physically demanding to be here such late nights all the time, especially with school and finals coming up.”
Brett “Soda” George, a senior majoring in liberal arts and assistant director from the street-style dance company, My Bad Crew, said staging is one of the problems dancers encounter during rehearsals.
“You have a set of moves and you try to make the people line up in the way that you thought they would,” George said. “Well, that lineup takes a lot more time than you normally would think.”
He said although the dance companies at the university are getting bigger and better, USU still doesn’t have a dance program.
“More and more people keep asking ‘Why don’t we have a dance program?’ Well, (One Stage) is a direct grassroots response to that and to the university,” he said. “We have dancers here and whether or not you have a program for us, we will continue to do this. But we hope that it leads to a program in the future.”
He said the first semester working with My Bad Crew was rough, because organizers were trying to make their vision known. He said it was hard because dancers weren’t prepared for shows, since freestyle, breakdancing and street style take a longer time to learn, and they did not have enough time to train in those styles.
As a result, they were stuck in choreography when they actually have to train dancers, he said. However, he thinks everything will go a lot smoother with a more rigorous trial process next year, he said.
For One Stage, My Bad Crew will perform two pop pieces, something that has never been done before, George said. The group will also perform dance routines using music by Missy Elliot and Shiny Toy Guns, as well as an old-school funk locking piece.
“Since we’re the newest group, we have the least amount of numbers in the show,” he said. “But we are very confident that we’re going to steal the show.”
Natalie Miller, assistant director from the choreographed hip-hop dance company, Vilociti, said there are members from both Vilociti and My Bad Crew who move back and forth between both dance companies.
“It was controversial at the beginning because we did cut them from Vilociti, and they didn’t initially make the team,” said Miller, a senior majoring in human movement science. “If they can prove that they can keep up with Vilociti, then we let them dance with us.”
She said she hasn’t taken any formal dance lessons since third grade, and when she was a freshman at USU, she signed up for the hip-hop dance class with the university. Miller said she heard about Vilociti from class instructors who were on the dance team at the time.
Miller tried out the next year and made the team and has been with the company ever since, she said.
Since auditions for all the dance companies are held next September, Miller said those interested in trying out should get as much exposure to the dance companies as they can by attending their events, practicing at the B-boy club and signing up for dance classes on campus.
“Other than my dance class in third grade, I just danced in my living room, and that’s where my training came from,” she said. “I feel like I’m a success story because a lot of people think ‘I’ve never danced before, I can’t do this.’ But I’ve been doing this for three years, and I was in the same place (before).”
Miller also performed in last year’s spring show and said this year there are more numbers and more variety, especially because of the addition of My Bad Crew.
Miller said every year there are guest artists who have gone through auditions for the show performing with them. It provides the opportunity for interested students to get a taste of whether they want to be part of the dance companies.
For One Stage, Miller said Vilociti has prepared dance routines that require them to get into characters such as “Robots vs. Wolverines,” which util
izes music from the “Twilight” soundtrack.
“It’s more of a battle piece,” she said. “It has really strong beats, and that’s where the hard-hitting of the Wolverine and the robot will come out. It’s a pretty intense piece.”
Another piece Miller said everyone is excited for is the Beyonce number that dancers have prepared for, as well as the finale. Although she couldn’t reveal much about the finale, she said it will be an emotional piece.
“For a lot of us, it’s our last year dancing,” she said. “It’s Coldplay, and Coldplay is always emotional.”
One Stage will be held at 7.30 p.m. Tuesday at Kent Concert Hall. Tickets can be purchased online or at the Chase Fine Arts Center Box Office.
– nadiah.johari@aggiemail.usu.edu