The Department of Theater and Dance will present its biggest event of the year, the 38th annual "December Dance Concert," this weekend.
The performance will feature both class projects and extracurricular dance groups. Five dance classes and eight student-run groups will be performing.
"The performance is wildly popular every year. Many students say it's their favorite event all year," Professor of Dance June Vail said.
Among the courses represented are the repertory classes Dance 112, 212 and 312 taught by Senior Lecturers in Dance Performance Paul Sarvis and Gwyneth Jones.
The routine performed by the introductory repertory class of Dance 112, "Morphology of a Fairy Tale," will feature numbers that include dances to the beat of drums, a "Sugar Plum Fairy" remix and Maria Muldaur's "I'm a Woman."
Dance 212's intermediate repertory class members will be dancing the "Java Jive" to music from the Bremer Kauffeehaus Orchester and students in the advanced 312 class will be doing a routine called "On the Run."
The other two classes represented in the show are courses that combine the study of dance history with studio work?"Cultural Choreographies" and "Rebel Dancers, Dancing Revolutions"?both taught by Vail.
Students in "Cultural Choreographies" will peform a two-part suite titled "Two for Twenty-Six," which consists of "Vlacko" and "Cimpoi," traditional Bulgarian and Romanian dances, respectively. The group will be accompanied by Beth Borgerhoff, a local musician based in Mt. Vernon, Maine.
In the style of 1930s choreography, "Rebel Dancers, Dancing Revolutions" will perform "Strike/Trio" inspired by Pablo Neruda's 1946 poem "La Huelga (The Strike)." The routine will be danced to a piece by the late American composer Lou Harrison, "Varied Trio II," which includes parts for violin, piano and percussion.
Among the various clubs to perform are the Bollywood film group Anokha, the ballet troupe Arabesque, the hip-hop lyrical crew EleMental, the ethnic dance team Intersections, hip-hop and break-dancing club Obvious and the hip-hop and jazz ensemble of VAGUE.
Senior John Howard, leader of Obvious, anticipated opening night with enthusiasm.
"I am somewhat anxious, but I'm excited to see how everyone who sees our performance will react to it," he said.
Kelsey MacEachern '10 has choreographed for Arabesque and VAGUE since the beginning of the semester; she will also perform with the 312 group. According to her, nearly all of the groups performing in the concert have been rehearsing since the beginning of the year. Like most of the routines to be performed by dance classes, most of the clubs' performances have been practiced at least twice a week.
Howard added that all clubs that want to perform in the concert must audition successfully for the Department of Theater and Dance in order to reserve a place in the show.
Also to perform are the Japanese percussion group, the Taiko Drummers, a group organized by Elizabeth Jones '09 performing "Fancy Footwork" and a duet by Linzee Troubh '09 and Kate Pastorek '10 to the song "Feeling Good."
Troubh will be performing not only with Pastorek but also with Dance 312 and Arabesque.
"I think that all of the pieces, not only those that I'm in, are really strong and show all that Bowdoin has to offer," Troubh said.
According to Vail, the December Dance Concert is an end-of-semester sum of all the work that dance clubs and classes have been doing since over the past few months. Between 80 and 100 dancers will showcase their talent in the entirety of the event. The event should last an hour and a half, including time for a brief intermission.
While there are usually a few course-based independent projects performed by the students at the event, Vail said there would be no routines featured from that category this year.
The dancers will perform tomorrow and Saturday at 8 p.m. in Memorial Hall in Pickard Theater. Tickets are available at the information desk in Smith Union. Although tickets are free, they are mandatory for students, faculty and community members who want to attend.