CLAUDIA STAFFORD, DANCER & ALUMNA

Claudia Stafford graduated from Sacramento State last fall, but that did not stop her from coming back to perform in this year’s Dance House in Elhom Mirmazaheri’s piece.

Dance House is eclectic this year, with students of all different disciplines working together for a single show. Stafford likes this varied makeup, and thinks it will draw more people come show nights.

“There are a lot of different styles in this show,” Stafford said. “Sac State tends to be very modern, but this show has contemporary, it’s got modern, jazz, a little hip-hop. It’s going to reach a larger audience.”

The alumna is a dancer of 19 years and was originally styled in competitive dancing. When she started performing at Sac State two years ago, she was in for a new world entirely.

“They’re more theatrical with their dancing. It’s more for the production than the ‘wow’ factor,” Stafford said. “It’s more about getting the audience to feel something from the dance. It was really different for me, but it was also really good because it opened my eyes to another style of dance. It was a completely new world for me.”

SHELLY YEN,

CHOREOGRAPHER  & DANCER

It was watching children singing along with a live piano that made senior liberal studies major Shelly Yen want to have live music in her piece for this semester’s Dance House.

“I was still debating whether I wanted to choreograph at all,” Yen said. “But then I started talking to Diego (Campos) about it, and he wanted to do a live music piece, too. He wanted to do his about love and relationships, and that was exactly what I wanted to do.”

Yen co-choreographs with Diego Campos, junior dance and foreign languages major. Their piece, “He Loves Me, He Loves Me Knot,” is one of nine dances for the night, and is the story of a love triangle among a boy and two girls.

Yen, who is also dancing in three performances, studies kinesiology as a concentration. She plans to go into a career of teaching kindergarten through ninth grade physical education and dance.

“I wanted to become a dance teacher, but I kind of changed my mind and wanted to teach elementary school kids,” Yen said. “Then as I was getting my dance minor, my adviser told me if I had a kinesiology concentration, I could teach a lot more. So I have a lot of options, and won’t get stuck in one job.”

KATHERINE ESAU, CHOREOGRAPHER & DANCER

Katherine Esau is a busy graduating senior with a major in psychology and a minor in dance. But when she picked her piece, “Powerful Portraits,” for this year’s Dance House, she had one thing on the brain: cliques and their mean girls.

“I feel like it’s relevant today,” Esau said. “You see more movies like ‘Mean Girls,’ which I based it off of. You see girls that always have to be in charge in groups and there’s always someone who leads the pack. It’s never more than one girl.”

Esau said Dance House is a different from other shows people might be familiar with on campus. Dance House gives students the opportunity to choreograph, and this can lead to a difference of atmosphere in the performance space, she said.

“It’s really upbeat. There are more moods and music people can relate to in this show,” Esau said. “People aren’t going to be sitting there not understanding or enjoying it and trying to figure out what’s going on. It’s going to be more fun and enjoyable.”

ELHOM MIRMAZAHERI,

CHOREOGRAPHER & DANCER

Senior journalism major Elhom Mirmazaheri decided to use a favorite artist to choreograph her project for this year’s Dance House, a piece set to the new Lady Gaga song Scheiße (pronounced shy-za).

“I’m kind of obsessed with her,” Mirmazaheri said. “I think I understand her as an artist and a person, and I think I understand where she’s going with her whole image. I wanted to take that and put it into this show.”

The student choreographers are given guidelines for Dance House, but Mirmazaheri said compared to something like the Senior Dance Concert, this show gives them more “freedom.”

“We can do more of what we want, and we’re not being graded on it,” Mirmazaheri said. “We still have faculty looking at the piece and making sure it’s up to par, but we have a lot more leniency.”

MELISA CERVANTES, CHOREOGRAPHER

Melisa Cervantes is graduating senior this year, and before she gets her degree in dance she decided to use a local rapper’s talents to make her mark on this year’s Dance House. Not only that, she choreographed her entire piece during the last trimester of her second pregnancy.

Cervantes is scheduled to deliver any day, said she might be in a maternity ward when this semester’s Dance House opens.

The inclusion of underground rap artist M.I.Geezus, who also happens to be her husband, was both Cervantes’ way of using his skills for her show and showing his talents to the department.

“He’s been producing his own music for more than 10 years,” Cervantes said. “Pretty much everyone in the department has met him but has never seen his work. I thought it would be nice to choreograph this piece so the department could see it.”

Cervantes’ piece is called “You Don’t Know Me,” and is her “take on the music industry.”

“It’s about how far we want to go as artists before we love ourselves,” Cervantes said. “Is it really art? How much am I staying true to what I want to say as an artist? That’s what we want the audience to see.”

Dance House performance times and

prices:

 

Today, 6:30 p.m. ($8/$8/$5)

Thursday, 6:30 p.m. ($8/$8/$5)

Friday, 8 p.m. ($12/$10/$8)

Saturday, 8 p.m. ($12/$10/$8)

Sunday, 2 p.m. ($12/$10/$8)

 

All performances are in Solano Hall.

Prices are for:

general admission/students/children

Maxwell McKee can be reached at [email protected].