University Dance Company to showcase faculty and guest choreography


The University Dance Company Dance Sites Spring 2018 performance series — featuring the largest cast for any performance this year — will be held in celebration of the community at Sacramento State.

The event is a collection of guest and faculty choreographed dances and will include a variety of genres including contemporary, jazz, hip-hop and Mexican folk.The UDC is made of students and alumni and is open to students of all majors and backgrounds, and the dance series will reflect the company’s diversity.

The two guest choreographers are Angela Rosenkrans from Scottsdale Community College in Arizona and Linda Goodrich, a former Sacramento State professor who had been the artistic director of Sacramento/Black Art of Dance for 15 years until 2017.

“Being able to work with a faculty member who’s had so much experience is really gratifying and it makes me realize how much there is to learn still,” said Kristen Marshall, an alumna performing in the show. “I love working with this cast and the professors, I love that I’ve been asked as an alumni to come back and perform, it’s just been a really rewarding experience.”

Despite the company’s inclusive attitude towards newcomers, preparation for the series has been demanding for both beginners and veterans alike.

“It’s amazing to see the faculty and where their brains go,” said Gwendellynn Brown, a student double-majoring in dance and spanish. “Being in these performances is challenging physically, spiritually and emotionally. We do these incredibly challenging things like being upside down , jumping around and spinning for five six seven minutes in a piece, but look like it’s effortless in some ways.”

The show’s theme will coincide with Sac State’s ‘one world initiative,’ according to professor Philip “Flick” Flickinger, who added that the initiative takes special meaning for dancers.

“Dancers are community driven in all aspects of what they do,” Flick says. “When we go out as dance educators into the community we’re trying to build confidence within community as well as dance ability, dance skill and dance knowledge.”

Marshall agreed with Flickinger, saying that each piece in the performance series “follows a storyline or a theme of community.”

Dance Sites Spring 2018 will run from Feb. 21 to Feb. 25 and will be held in Shasta Hall’s University Theatre.