For more than two decades, the Allan Hancock College Dance program has impressed audiences with its ability to express emotion, ideas, and concepts through dance with its Dimensions in Dance production. This year, the department taps into the talent of students, both present and past, as well as tenured faculty, to produce the 22nd celebration of movement.
Diane Grieco McMahon, Dimensions in Dance director and coordinator of the dance program at Hancock, said that this year’s program is all at once different but the same. Productions always showcase a variety of dances, music, and abilities—and in that way the production stays true to its format, she explained—but each year the different combinations of student and faculty choreographers brings something special to the show.
“Their new, fresh attitudes and abilities always change the personality of our dances,” McMahon said.
Steven Jasso, a former Allan Hancock College dance student and current member of State Street Ballet, has joined the production as a choreographer.
“Steven brings new flair with a contribution of his ballet techniques and modern combined,” McMahon said.
For his work in Dimensions in Dance, Jasso was inspired partially by the poem Eloisa to Abelard, by Alexander Pope.
Jasso said that he believes people should experience life no matter whether they win or lose. His inspiration followed a sad time in his life, a time when he needed to believe in experiencing life no matter what and to learn how to find a happy place.
The dance is choreographed to the Beatles song, “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. The movements are lyrical, he said, each one expressing certain lyrics in the song. For instance, when the lyrics talk about cellophane flowers of yellow and green, the dancers create flower shapes.
Jasso was studying at Hancock when he heard about an opportunity to attend a summer intensive with Santa Barbara’s State Street Ballet in 2006. He did that, after which he was invited to apprentice with the company. He was made a full company member after just one season and is concurrently rehearsing with the ballet for its production of Swan Lake while setting “Eternal Sunshine” for Dimensions in Dance.
Much like the school’s campaign and slogan (“Start here. Go anywhere.”), Jasso really did get his start in dance at Hancock College. He started out as a music major, a bassoon player, and he hoped to one day become an orchestra conductor. However, he had danced in high school—mostly hip-hop and pop lock style—and, because of his background, he got involved in dance at Hancock. He studied it for four semesters, and then he had an epiphany.
“I realized it was performing I really like, not necessarily music,” he said.
Though Jasso said that inspiration comes and goes, when it comes, sometimes it comes from music and sometimes it comes from ideas.
He said that he likes to make creative music selections and enjoys mixing the unexpected, like hip-hop and ballet. He hopes to one day work with Cirque du Soleil, for which he believes his unique and creative style would be a good fit.
“I enjoy expressing myself through that venue,” he said. “Going back to Hancock gives me the opportunity to try my own ideas out.”
Jasso joins current student choreographers Irene Kleinbauer and Kendra Pearson, each making their choreographic debut this fall. Kleinbauer and Pearson have studied in the college’s dance program for two semesters and recently returned from a summer intensive in New York City with Ballet Hispanico. Pearson’s work, “Between Dawn and Daylight,” set to acoustic guitar, is a lyrical jazz piece performed by five female dancers. According to McMahon, Kleinbauer’s modern ballet, “Entropy,” is a metaphorical look at pressures within society seeking to find balance. Other student choreographers include Joeniel Jovero and Sandra Salas. Salas is a veteran choreographer, McMahon said: “She has varied experience in many styles and will bring a new addition to the concert with her Aztec piece.”
INFOBOX: See the movement
Dimensions in Dance shows Oct. 8 to 12 in the Marian Theatre on the Allan Hancock College campus. Show times are 7 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday and 2 p.m. on Sunday. Tickets cost $12 to $15 and are available at the Performing Arts Center box office or by calling 922-8313.
Arts Editor Shelly Cone knows that inspiration comes and goes. Contact her at scone@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Oct 9-16, 2008.