Buckle up and prepare for landing. The destination for DanceWorks Airlines has been reached – and it’s Goldstein Auditorium.

More than 120 dancers, hours of practicing and a team of choreographers have created the DanceWorks Showcase for 2009, which starts tonight and continues throughout the weekend.

With this year’s airline theme, every song in the show is associated with an airport. Posters for the show and clothing that will be sold at the showcase also fit the theme of the show. ‘We want to take the audience on a trip throughout the world and show them all different dances,’ said senior Porshia Derival, co-director of DanceWorks.

The dance she choreographed is to Michael Jackson’s ‘Billy Jean,’ and it takes on the theme by representing Jackson International Airport.

‘This year I am most excited to see on the stage how much my dancers have grown,’ Derival said. ‘I can’t wait to see the other choreographers’ dances out of the practice rooms.’

Every dancer in Derival’s dance has a solo, because she enjoys seeing what dancers can do on their own.

The show will feature hip-hop, jazz, ballet, modern and contemporary dances of different levels. The choreographers get to pick their dancers and the level at which they want them to dance. Each October, tryouts take place to see which students will make the DanceWorks team for the year and get to take part in the largest club sport team and largest student organization at SU.

Stacey Foster, producer of the show, is choreographing an intermediate lyrical piece to Dave Matthews’s song ‘Satellite.’

‘The best part of working on the show is getting to collaborate different styles of dance and working with different people on the DanceWorks board and in the cast,’ Foster said. ‘You really learn you can have an instant connection with someone through a passion you have had since you were growing up,’ Foster said.

DanceWorks gives dancers the opportunity to continue their passion without being a dance major or minor. Practice for each dance began in October and lasted until last week. Preparing for the show is a full-year process that consists of tryouts and choosing the dancers and the dances they will perform.

The dancers practice an hour and a half per week, and if they are in multiple dances they go to a practice for each dance.

Last year’s Friday and Saturday shows were both sold out, and the directors expect the same for this year.

‘They are awesome girls with 100 percent dedication to the organization, and it has been a real pleasure to work with them,’ said Danielle Houghton, co-director of DanceWorks. ‘It is fulfilling to see our board work all year and put tons of effort into the show, it’s what makes the 10-plus hours a week worth it.’

rltoback@syr.edu

Published on February 25, 2009 at 12:00 pm