As a living art form, dance is constantly evolving almost by the minute. Whether it’s a student taking a dance course for the first time or a student on their way to a university dance program, San Jacinto College’s dance program offers its students a blank canvas to express themselves at any level.
Corinne Miller, dance program alumna.
Photo Credit: Andrea Vasquez, San Jacinto College.
“The majority of our students are serious about a dance career, whether it’s continuing on to university dance programs, pursuing performing careers, teaching at the studio level or public education, or pursuing a choreography career,” said San Jacinto College dance program director, Jamie Williams. “We also have students who take our dance classes simply because they love to dance. For instance, one of my ballet students is a mom of four who always loved dancing, but chose a different career path. Now that her children are older, she has come back to school and is rekindling her passion for dance.”
Another student of Williams’ originally took a Modern dance class to help with his balance and flexibility for sports. Three semesters later, he’s still dancing.
Student Tuesday Boswell says the diversity of all the dancers and what they bring to a dance is an inspiration in itself. “What really makes the San Jacinto College program so unique is how diverse the members are,” said Boswell. “Since I have been dancing for the program, I have seen so many people inspire one another just by the way they dance and move in their own unique way. I’ve learned how movement can be created and expressed in so many variations all because of the many creative minds of the students that come to dance.”
Williams says that dancers today are also breaking down social stigmas and barriers that once kept people away from dance. “One of the biggest misconceptions is that dancers need to be a certain weight or body type in order to be successful. Unfortunately, the dance world itself created that stereotype throughout history, and now it’s one that we’re actively working to dispel. Choreographers are leaning more toward healthy, strong, ‘human-looking’ dancers than the frail stick figures of the past, and dance educators are working to eliminate the body type misconception.”
Dance student, Tuesday Boswell.
Photo credit: Diane Bedford.
The San Jacinto College dance program provides students with performance opportunities through annual dance concerts along with local and national performance invitations. Each semester the dance students produce a dance concert with works choreographed by students and guest artists.
Students also participate in the national American College Dance Festival. Recently, in conjunction with Black History month, student Bryonna Milton choreographed a work entitled “Phenomenal,” set to Maya Angelou’s poem, “Phenomenal Woman” that was performed during faculty in-service week.
The Spring dance concert will be held May 1 and 2 at 7:30 p.m., in the Marie Spence Flickinger Fine Arts Center auditorium on the San Jacinto College South Campus. The concert will feature a collection of modern, ballet, jazz, and Polynesian dance styles. For more information about the dance program, visit sanjac.edu/career/dance.
– Andrea Vasquez
