The Cabrillo College Dance Department presented “The Spring Dance Concert” on May 6 & 7, 20 22. The concert featured new dances by student and faculty choreographers, and was held at The Crocker Theater.

The Spring Dance Concert presented 13 dances, primarily student choreographed under the creative leadership of David King, dancer and Cabrillo Chair of the Dance Department. After two years of a pandemic, “…some of the choreographies are more of an internal expression while others express the intoxication with the physical pulse of movement,” said King of the 2022 presentation.

In the genre of hip-hop dance, Black womanhood is a central theme, with one of the pieces, a solo piece, contemplating addiction, recovery, relapse, and perseverance. In the 2022 dance concert, a wide variety of themes were explored ranging from meditations on family and loss to the ecstatic joy of a Puerto Rican heritage of Salsa Dance.

Ceech Hsu is a hip-hop dance instructor at Cabrillo who teaches in several colleges as well as dance studios in the Bay Area. He coaches and mentors dancers who train with him in hip-hop classes at Cabrillo, like Reeba Thomas and Rachel Vega, who are performing in the spring concert. Hsu trained with the mythic Electric Boogaloos, famous for their dance choreographies on the television show Soul Train in the 1970’s, as well as their work with some of the biggest names in the industry from Michael Jackson, James Brown, and Lionel Richie to Sheila E in the 1980s and 1990s.

“There are many talented dancers/teachers that I have met along the way, but the Jabbawockeez Family and the Electric Boogaloos Family are two giant pillars of my dance foundation. I want to invite you to come and share this culture with me,” said Hsu. He has coached and mentored dancers who train with him in hip-hop classes at Cabrillo, like Reeba Thomas and Rachel Vega, who will be performing in the spring concert.

This concert had one faculty choreographed dance, by Associate Professor Casey Thorne. Professor Thorne is deeply steeped in the Modern Ballet tradition and is also influenced by the choreography and teaching of San Francisco’s Alonzo King.

She created a large ensemble dance in three parts, divided by silence and the sound of dancers walking through a ten count walking pattern that reduces again to silence. The first section is the full company moving to an almost hallucinatory saxophone solo. The last section begins with a single dancer moving to a violin solo and ends with the ensemble framing and filling the stage.

The dance program at Cabrillo is different from many other dance programs in their emphasis on the importance of giving dancers access to performance and creative work starting in their first semesters at the college. In many conservatories, students spend a proportionally greater time in the studio, only gaining access to the stage in their third or fourth year in a program. The Cabrillo department believes that learning to feel confident on stage is gained through practice, and offers students the opportunity to perform for large audiences right away.

This vision is shared in dance classes at Cabrillo regardless of a student’s level, and auditions for performances are open to all. “I believe that I can teach anyone to dance,” said Ceech Hsu. The ability to imagine a project and collaborate with a group of peers to create dances and present them to our larger community is a great way to train future leaders of performance art.

Dancers at Cabrillo College deserve much praise and support for their work, as do the instructors, having persisted in dancing amidst the pandemic, wearing masks to rehearse indoors, as well as outdoors, throughout the semester. This artistic discipline embodies the bond they share with each other, their communities, and their college.

“It is an action packed show, full of life and hope, and the promise of summer to come,” said David King.

To find out more about hip-hop dance at Cabrillo check out Ceech Hus at:  https://dancewithceech.com/