Last month, the Moorpark College dance department presented the spring production, “Motion Flux,” showcasing the dynamic work of six student choreographers from April 18-20 in the Performing Arts Center.
Directed by Robert Salas, the show was shortly accompanied by Moorpark College’s Jazz Ensemble, conducted by professor Brendan McMullin. The band presented an exclusive pre-performance and accompanied the piece, “Sing Sing Sing,” alongside student dancers.
The dance department further displayed a variety of styles in the show, including jazz, hip-hop and lyrical routines. “Motion Flux” also marked the final spring performance of student choreographer Vivian Rangel, a fourth-year Moorpark College dance student.
With plans to transfer to a four-year university in the fall, she spoke about her fourth and final spring showcase and her next steps as a choreographer.
“It’s definitely like a bittersweet moment; I’m definitely ready for the next chapter [and the] next steps of moving on as a choreographer and dancer in this school, but it is sad. I feel like I’ve been here for so long and it’s finally coming to an end,” Rangel said. “I do plan on continuing like with dance and the choreographic route. I want to get into arts management and beyond that side of things as well.”
Through her time in the dance department, Rangel shared that developing her choreography skills involved having a lot of patience, letting doubts go and allowing collaboration to unfold.
Rangel’s piece for the showcase, “i know the end,” was a fusion of contemporary, modern and hip-hop styles. The theme explored an individual’s journey with mental health and how they overcame the thoughts and voices in their head. Rangel reflected on her piece and prior projects that have pushed her as a choreographer.
“This one, I feel like it’s been the most challenging for sure. I feel I’ve grown probably the most throughout this process for this piece,” Rangel shared. “But I feel like the one [piece] last spring was a more a light-hearted dance, it was more fun, upbeat and kind of like silly in a way.”
“Motion Flux” also included first-time student choreographers who were able to showcase their unique pieces.
Ashlynn Brantingham, dance major at Moorpark College, executed her first original jazz piece, “Feel the Groove,” at the show. Brantingham shared her experience teaching her choreography and the challenges that came with it.
“It [teaching] was really nice. I really got to work with other people that are maybe [at] different levels or [have] different skills.” Brantingham shared. “Telling the dancers what the story is about and getting them to really embody it.”
Maica Guevarra, a third-year dance major at Moorpark College, has been part of the annual showcase four times and debuted her first choreographed piece, “Recess,” on stage. Guevarra explained how the process was like choreographing for the first time.
“The process was actually really fun, especially with the dancers that I had. We didn’t just dance, I had them play little games before rehearsals just to get in the mood and also to get them bonded,” Guevarra explained. “That just made them easy to work with because they’re super open-minded about all the craziness I gave them.”
Guevarra was excited to showcase the dancers’ high energy and hard work they were able to bring into the piece. She recalled her professor’s advice, “choreographers are nothing without the dancers,” and found it true while working with the dancers.
Act 2 of the production offered a different styles, along with the rest of the choreographers’ pieces, such as “Unobtainable” by first-time Moorpark College student choreographer, Brianna Turner.
Zoe Ruehlen, a nursing major at Moorpark College, choreographed the all-ages entertaining jazzercise piece, “Retrogroove.” Different from her normal dance style, she explained the process of gaining inspiration to create the piece and costumes.
“For this piece, I watched a lot of old jazzercise videos from the 70s and 80s aerobic stuff,” Ruelen said. “So, it was fun kind of getting out of my comfort zone, a little bit hard because I’m not used to generating jazzercise movement because it’s not a style that I do, but I had a lot of fun with it.”
Catherine Fields, second-year nursing major student at Moorpark College, worked on a light-hearted contemporary jazz piece named, “Look at Me Now.”
Fields’ choreographed piece is about following and going against society’s standards. A break was included in the piece to demonstrate linear and nonlinear movement in relation to their conformity. Fields shared what part of her piece she was most excited for the audience to watch.
“I just want the dancers to show on their face and through their dancing that it can be fun,” Field said.“You can just goof around and like have moments where you’re dancing without technique basically.”
The Moorpark College dance department will have “Evening of Dance” on May 15-16, to purchase tickets click here. For more information about the Moorpark College dance department, click here.
