Dozens of dancers, guest choreographers, student choreographers, and even the vice president of Academic Affairs, are preparing for Allan Hancock College’s Dimensions in Dance recital.
This year’s show promises breathtaking moves and unique arrangements, explained the event’s director, Dianne McMahon.
McMahon has directed Dimensions in Dance for 35 years and is excited with how the program unfolds. Along with a variety of dances, there are also new choreographers and students involved. Another addition is a special saxophone performance by Vice President of Academic Affairs George Railey, with a dancer performing alongside him on stage. Before he began his decades-long career in college administration, Railey was a professor of music for 12 years at Somerset Community College and Technical College in Kentucky. He’s contributed his musical abilities to recordings and concerts by The Platters, The Coasters, and Marilyn McCoo.
The lineup includes solos, duets, and mass collaborations, but McMahon’s favorite part about the performance is what the audience doesn’t get to see, she explained, and that’s the amount of hard work and devotion each performer puts into practice and rehearsal.
“They learn so much more than just dancing,” she said. “I’m amazed by their growth in dance, life, and personality. Their pure enjoyment on stage reveals who they are as people.”
Several new students and choreographers joined the program this semester, McMahon said. Students enrolled in Hancock’s choreography class have the opportunity to arrange pieces for Dimensions in Dance, and this year’s students include Amanda Cuevas and Stanford Midling, with assistant Andrea Velasco. Midling has performed for Hancock the past two years, although this is his first show as a choreographer.
In addition to the student choreographers, guest collaborators Doriana Sanchez and Mikaela Arneson arranged two routines. Both have extensive backgrounds with dancing, choreography, and directing and have appeared on shows like The Voice, Dancing with the Stars, the American Music Awards, Dream School USA, and many others.
Sanchez choreographed an upbeat routine performed by six dancers, while Arneson created a hip-hop routine by the name of “Let’s Go.” Sanchez and Arneson prepared dancers with their parts over a recent weekend, McMahon said.
Student dancer Bailey Hall has performed with Hancock since 2008 and hopes to choreograph like Midling and Cuevas next fall. She will dance both a lyrical piece and a character jazz piece for the upcoming recital.
“This year’s show is outstanding overall, every single dance,” Hall said. “We have a lot of new people that are doing really well, so it’s going to be one of the best shows we’ve had in a really long time.”
Everyone involved with Dimensions in Dance is ecstatic about the diversity of routines and can’t wait for the performance, Midling explained.
“It’s going to be pretty different,” he said, “but definitely a good different.”
Calendar Editor Annie Heisler only dances when no one is watching. She can be reached at aheisler@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Oct 15-22, 2015.