Dancers and choreographers alike are called upon to express themselves through dance in non- traditional styled auditions for the spring 2013 dance concert.
Skip Costa, national director and owner of New York Los Angeles Dance Conventions and Competitions (NYLA DANCE), will fill the role of artistic director for the concert with assistance from Dr. Martie Fellom, dance coordinator. Auditions took place Tuesday, Nov. 13 and Wednesday, Nov. 14 from 6 p.m. until 7:30 p.m. both days.
“I want to give the students and choreographers a chance to be heard. I want to hear their voices,” said Costa. “Along the way, there’s always someone overlooked. I want to give people an opportunity to show their work with no bias or favoritism.”
The theme and style of the spring concert has yet to be decided. Chosen dancers and choreographers, along with Costa, will decide on a theme.
“For the concert we’ll pick one theme and every piece will connect to the same subject matter,” said Costa. “We’re going to start something fresh and new. I don’t want them to reproduce something that’s already been done.”
While Costa has extensive experience and accomplishments in the field of dance, Fellom believes he brings a distinct energy to the university’s dance program.
“Skip wants to uncover what the students’ abilities are. He’s got the creative energy to bring that out in the people attending the audition,” said Fellom. “He wants something to emerge from them about their own movement style and their own personal movement vocabulary.”
The audition was broken down into three parts. To begin, Costa had the students gather into a circle and introduce themselves with a three second dance movement. The group would then learn the movement and gradually connect each student’s dance phrase. Upon completion, the dancers dispersed to dance alone while Costa took turns dancing with each student.
“It’s a non-traditional audition,” said Costa. “We want to break the boundaries a little bit.”
Part two consisted of a more traditional audition style for which students would emulate the instructor’s movements. To conclude the experience, part three had dancers pose as an audience for each choreographer as they displayed their personal style and choreography.
“My mission is to touch the audience. I want them to be involved. I’m not an artist who just does it for me; I’m always aware of the audience,” said Costa. “I’m going to play anywhere from pop to techno to rock today. It’s music that they can relate to.”
In addition to college students, Costa is allowing junior and senior high school students to audition.
“It’s a great thing because it broadens the community, and it allows future dancers to come study at Southeastern,” said Costa.
Students walked through the audition studio doors with an open mind and a desire to dance.
“I’m just expecting to learn some new choreography and feel his style, see what he’s going to do,” said Tyron’E Hawkins, a freshmen kinesiology major. “I love to dance. I pretty much audition for everything, it’s what I do.”
Overall, students enjoyed the experience of auditioning with and for Costa in addition to the prospective opportunity to participate in the spring dance concert.
“I would love to participate in the spring concert because it is a chance to express myself in a very unique and personal way,” said Averi Harris, secretary of the Moxie Dance Project. “Mr. Costa is an inspiring person to work with. He gave us direction this evening and was very attentive to making sure we were confident in ourselves and in our movements.”
The dance concert is scheduled to be held on April 25, 2013 in Vonnie Borden Theatre. For more information, contact Fellom at [email protected] or 985-549-2133
“The auditions went amazing.  So many talented dancers within the groups on both nights, each with their own individual style and passion driving them to be a more well-rounded dancer,” said Costa. “They were all very expressive and paid close attention to detail of my movement vocabulary. It should be a very exciting spring concert in April.”