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Summer course provides education with workout |
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Tuesday, 22 July 2008 |
 | Gulick-James
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by ALISHA PARK
Chief Photographer
There’s nothing quite like a summer class that keeps students on their toes – literally.
The Appalachian State University Theatre and Dance Department is offering two to three classes a week over the summer free of charge to anyone willing to participate.
Specifically, the program is designed to bring dancers together from across campus to meet, learn and continue developing over the summer.
“It’s
great to see an eight-year-old dancing next to a 60-year-old,” said
Regina Gulick-James, theatre and dance faculty instructor and
coordinator of the program. “It’s the spirit of the dance series,
inclusiveness, reaching out and bringing dancers together, that’s the
idea.”
While there have been various summer dance classes held in past years,
Gulick-James started this specific summer dance series in 2007 to
include classes from a wide variety of specialty instructors.
She said 22 instructors from the past and present are volunteering to
teach in order to create a unique assortment of variety for the
hour-and-a-half classes. Classes held to date include dances of ballet,
tango, hula, belly, swing, basic yoga, ballroom, jazz and modern – just
to name a few. Experience is not required to participate in any of the
sessions, just a willingness to experiment.
“I love it all, so my idea is to be able to offer as much as possible
for people to come in without obligation or charge to try different
styles and teachers,” said Gulick-James.
Senior dance and theatre major Nikki M. Caruso attended the jazz class
on Wednesday led by Susan Lutz, theatre and dance instructor, along
with 11 others aging from young girls to middle-aged women.
“I come as often as I can,” Caruso said. “It’s great to get to dance
with people you don’t dance with during the year, it’s refreshing.”
The intermediate class focused on jazz with a modern twist
incorporating a thorough warm-up, traveling across the floor and a
large dance combination set to music.
The class is held in the Dance Studio, Room 208, in Varsity Gym where
students exercise on gray plastic mats in front of a full wall mirror
surrounded by free-standing ballet bars. Large windows near the ceiling
let in plenty of soft light to illuminate the room while the students
dance in time to the music with its heavy and obvious beats.
When the music is paused, silence envelopes the studio except for the
humming of the air conditioner and the instructor’s directions. The
class quietly follows her lead by dictating her movements with the
exception of the occasional question.
Most of the participants dance in black or light-colored leotards,
while others wear camisoles with tights and shorts, and all dance with
their hair pulled back. While dancing, some wear pink ballet shoes or
black dance shoes while most prefer to be barefoot.
The class takes only one break during the session between warming up
and the various dance combinations which incorporate battement tendus,
where the extended foot never leaves the floor and the working foot
slides forward or sideways; plies, where there is a continuous bending
of the knees; and glissades, which acts as a traveling step.
The class ends 10 minutes late because the students are so involved in
the dances and even linger afterward to chat and warm-down.
“It was fun and [Lutz’s] style is always a challenge, she really works
you, so afterward you always feel like you got a work out,” Caruso said.
The class leaves smiling and sweaty, fulfilling the goals Gulick-James had in mind.
“What better way to come together than for the passion of dance?” Gulick-James said.
Most of the dance classes meet on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from
12:30 p.m. to 2 p.m. in Varsity Gym, however, a complete schedule and
details for dance classes can be found listed in the Events Calendar
online at www.appstate.edu.
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