The Pacific Ensemble prepare for upcoming autumn showcase, featuring student, alumni, and faculty choreography
From November 16 to the 18, Pacific’s Dance Ensemble will host their annual fall showcase, a chance for Pacific faculty, students, and alumni to spotlight their choreography, and for the dance ensemble to show off their performance skills. It is a culmination of the Ensemble’s fall semester, and a celebration of Pacific Dance as a whole.
Choreographers Leiana Petlewski and Grace Hankins explained audiences should expect technically modern-contemporary choreography accompanied by innovative props, such as light shows and even water features. Alumni Petlewski elaborated: “It’s going to be a very exciting concert. There’s a lot of new, pseudo-experimental ways of making dance that are involved in this concert. People might not have seen that from Pacific before.”
Senior Hankins expanded on this, saying her piece stems from her two passions: dance and film. “I’m a double major in dance and film. I use a lot of technology and movement. When I was trying to think of what I wanted to do for concert production, I looked at my light kit next to me and I was like, ‘I could do something with lights.’”
Faculty choreographer James Healey emphasized the work the dancers have put into the show, as well as the choreographers. He praised how returning students and new coming dancers all rose to the challenge to make the best show possible. “I have found that students at Pacific take the work they are in seriously and try to put forth their best effort to accomplish the choreography, grow as dancers, and explore the process as it is presented to them,” he explained. “The dancers who have worked with me before have seemed to settle into the creative process with ease and confidence, while the dancers new to my work have graciously come along for the ride in a great way.”
The ensemble is excited for Pacific students to have the chance to support the arts. Petlewski explains, “The dance concert is really important for students to see…it’s not something that you get to see your peers do every day. Being able to see a full semester’s worth of hard work is really eye opening among the student body to be able to see, ‘wow, we have some very talented people on campus who are showcasing it in a really wonderful way.’”
The concert will be held in Tom Miles Theatre at Warner Hall November 16 – 18 with one virtual performance option on Thursday evening at 7:30 pm. Tickets are $5 – 8. — Rose Everingham
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