Frostburg Dance Company to Perform “Emergence”

Frostburg State University’s dance studio is home to amazing students who are very passionate about their art of dancing. These low key superheroes spend four to six hours daily in the dance studio, room 106 of the gym, working hard to learn, create, and…you guessed it dance.

May 6th and 7th at 7:30 in the Drama Theatre, Frostburg will have the opportunity to witness the greatness that these students have been working on all semester. The show is called Emergence; this name is special to these students because not only are they performing but they have each individually choreographed a dance for the show.

The dance department offers a special class that is known as Composition and Theory where students learn each style of dance from contemporary to African. In doing so, they have the ability to find their style and their originality. They are then challenged to create their own original dance compositions. In this class, their main focus is self expression. As they learned how to think outside the box and to look deeper than just doing steps, they also learn life lessons and more about themselves.

So who are these superheroes? What can their dancing teach us about life?

Our first hero is the Diversity Diva, Mariah Golding, she is a psychology major who loves to dance. Her piece is called Against The Grain, and it is about going against social norms and not being afraid to be yourself. She implements every genre of dance in order to express that humanity is made up of many elements and that it’s okay to be different and unique.

Next we have Relatable Radiance, also known as Yazmin Bush, who is an exercise sports science major and a dance minor. Her piece is called Under and it’s all about losing yourself. At first thought, it sounds kind of sad but once you think about it, it’s actually really cool. Life is wavy, a series of highs and lows and if we didn’t know lows then we will never truly appreciate the high moments. Her piece is the epitome of low as it uses dance to translate being stressed out and hitting rock bottom.

After that we have Disciplined Elegance, or Sarah Polkabla, a double major in computer science and secure computing and information assurance AND a dance and math minor. When she wasn’t teaching ballet to five year olds or doing mountains of homework, Sarah worked hard at choreographing Limitless. This contemporary ballet piece describes the endless amount of creativity that she and every other human possesses. She has worked hard to create a piece that complements the strength and weaknesses of every dancer, even those who struggle with ballet, which is her specialty.

Next is Classic Couture, better known as Shaiday Dancy, who is a Mass Communications major and a Dance minor. Her piece is known as Faded Fashion as it combines her two loves of modeling and dance by painting for the audience a picture of her reality, the modeling world of the DMV. Fun Fact, Shaiday has walked in the catwalk classic almost every year of her high school experience and it has influenced her enough to make her dance resemble a half time show at one of this events. Her life teaching is that you can be a king or queen with name brands and is an interesting mix of raunchy and elegance.

The charismatic Alexandria Stewart, or Lionhearted, uses her piece Negativity to teach others how to stand above negativity. At Frostburg, this is an important lesson for her as she pushes towards her dreams studying as a Psychology major and a dance minor. We all fall victim occasionally to other’s hurtful words or sometimes even our own, but it is how we handle this opposition that makes us stronger as people. It describes her life experience of finding herself again after rough periods of being lost.

As the only male in the group, Magnetic Majesty, is definitely a gem. As a theatre major and graphic design minor, Deion Dawoda thrives on Frostburg’s campus and dances in his spare time. His piece Toxic Attraction is epic as it illustrates a relationship that is toxic but hard to leave. His piece is a compilation of duet dances that is contemporary in genre and sets a very emotional tone for the audience. This piece is major for him as it is first major choreo that has lasted longer than a minute and he is very excited to show the audience his vision.

The next piece was choreographed by the Heavenly Goddess herself, Anecia Whitehead, who choreographed her dance as a symbolic goodbye to five loved ones who all passed away in 2014. Her piece is entitled I’m Free and is a celebration piece to memorialize these individuals through contemporary dance as she displays their journey to heaven and eternity. Anecia is a double major in Biology and Theatre and a dance minor.

How many people hate to be judged?

Breaking Free is a different kind of superhero; she cannot be boxed or labeled. Krysten Gutrich is a liberal studies student who also studies dance. Influenced by people’s belief that because she dressed nicely everyday, she was not doing her work, Krysten choreographed Façade. This piece challenges people to look beyond appearance. In fact she describes her piece as the, “study of how judgement based on appearance does not represent someone’s true essence.” Contrary to popular belief, Breaking Free has been on the dean’s list since she stepped on Frostburg’s campus and will continue to teach others the severity of misjudgment because she can and will not be boxed.

Abundant Optimism is a big believer in New Beginnings as she expresses the experience of a new start in her piece. Last but definitely not least, Madeline Bohrer is a theatre major and dance minor at Frostburg State. Her piece describes a new start, taking something negative in life and turning it into a positive and finding the good in everything. Her piece is the blossom of hope that one gets when meeting someone who changes your life for the better, whether it is a relationship or friendship. It is the personification of meeting someone that is supposed to be in your life for a certain reason and letting them help make you a better person.

If you are a strong believer in self expression, creativity, and most importantly dance, then this is a show that you do not want to miss. Write this down in your calendar ! Emergence – May 6th and 7th at 7:30 pm in the drama theatre. It costs $6 for students and $12 for the general public. The dance company is also accepting donations for personal items for the studio that will make life a bit more comfortable in between rehearsals.