Undergraduate dance students soon will have their opportunity to shine as the Dance Advisory Board prepares to put on ASU's first undergraduate dance concert in late April.
While ASU's dance department sponsors two graduate productions and a large concert each semester, undergraduates have never had a concert specifically featuring their work, said Maegan Enders, a dance education senior and member of the board.
"That was really the only thing missing," she said. "With the diversity of the undergraduates, we felt we needed our own show to represent that."
Undergraduates do have the opportunity to audition pieces for the large shows, but often are beat out by graduate and faculty pieces, Enders said.
But last spring, the board found its opportunity to fix that problem.
When the dance department announced there was an opening for an extra concert, the board drafted a petition to produce an undergraduate show, Enders said.
The board was awarded the concert at the end of last year and has been working on preparations for the completely student-run production since the fall.
The undergraduate concert will offer students like dance freshman Aaron McGloin a unique opportunity to choreograph a piece for a show demanding professional standards.
"It's exciting to try new things and see how they work and see how people react to them," McGloin said.
Kristin Lerner, a dance choreography sophomore, said this concert would be her first chance to develop a piece with a group that was not made up primarily of ASU seniors and graduate students.
"It's nice to have a chance to work with undergraduates who haven't been in the program for four or five years," Lerner said.
Lerner also said the concert will give her a chance to express her own voice.
"A lot of times, you're just in the piece so you're at the whim of the choreographer," she said.
Additionally, the undergraduate concert will give dance students an early experience guiding one of their pieces through a production, said Kathleen Cunningham, a dance studies junior and member of the board.
Dance students do not usually have a chance to work on an original piece for a University concert until the second semester of their senior year.
"It's really important to have this concert," Cunningham said. "No one can develop their skill with just a final product."
The concert will be at 7:30 p.m. on April 20 in the Physical Education East Dance Theatre, Room 132. Admission will be $3 at the door.
Reach the reporter at amanda.keim@asu.edu.
