Dance troupe makes ‘Impact’

The Orchesis Dance Company, Cal Poly’s oldest concert dance organization, will return to Spanos Theatre this week for their 39th annual winter dance show.

This year’s concert, entitled “Impact,” will combine the company’s unique blend of jazz, hip-hop, ballet, tap, ballroom, lyrical and modern dance styles with new visual techniques that are bound to surprise and intrigue audience members.

According to Orchesis President Francesca Lee, attendees from last year’s concert will notice the differences from concerts past.

“I think the company has grown a lot,” she said. “Definitely the student choreographers have matured and have spent a lot of time developing their concepts and ideas. This year, the pieces are smaller but longer and more in-depth.”

According to company members, this year’s more abstract dance numbers promise to stimulate not only the eyes in the audience, but also the minds.

“It’s a little bit different setup this year. There’s a lot less literal, and more conceptual pieces,” said Orchesis member and architecture junior Jessica Thoma, who has been with the company for three years.

“We dove a little deeper into ideas, rather than dancing around the surface, I guess you could say,” Thoma said. “Some of the dances may be a little too deep for some people, but I think most will find it more interesting, because you’re not always sitting there, saying ‘OK, that I get.’ It gives it a little more depth to try and figure it out.”

This year’s concert will also feature dances by a number of guest choreographers, including company alumni as well as the nationally renowned San Francisco-based choreographer Robert Moses.

“We also have a new guest choreographer,” Lee added. “Chad Michael Hall, a professor from Loyola (University), who’s doing a political piece – I’m not going to give away about what – that has a lot of projections and makes a statement. It’s something new that we’re pretty excited about.”

Most dances are choreographed by the company’s 30 student members. Thoma, who, with another company member, choreographed her first piece for this year’s concert, said her educational background from Cal Poly was instrumental in helping her create something from scratch.

“I’m an architecture major,” she said. “So that helped in knowing how to go through the design process, but it was different because you’re working with a different medium. I saw a lot of relationships between architecture and dance and tried to put them together. I’m curious to see how people will respond.”

Approximately 2,500 people come to see Orchesis’ winter concert every year. Attendees of previous concerts expressed their own excitement and anticipation for this year’s show.

“I attended the past three shows,” mechanical engineering senior Drew LaPlante said.

“I can’t even describe how powerful it was. They just pull you in and every dance just gets more and more intense in a very unique kind of way.”

“Even if you don’t appreciate dance, it’s just something that everyone should experience because it’s another style of art,” he added. “It’s just like looking at a painting a certain way and you get a certain feeling from it, you know? If anything, just try it out, because you never know how something’s going to affect you.”

“Impact” kicks off 8 p.m. Friday night at Spanos Theatre and will continue for five more performances this and next weekend. Student tickets are $10 and are available at the Performing Arts Center Ticket Office.