The dance program at FCC has been generating student talent for more than 30 years, and with their annual Fall Workshop in addition to their Spring Concert, they are showing no sign of slowing.
This semester, dancers are under the artistic direction of Jimmy Hao who has accumulated an extensive background in dancing, teaching, and choreographing at various professional schools and companies throughout the world.
Hao believes the Fall Workshop is a good way to present FCC dance to the community; it possess a lot of experimental pieces mainly associated with contemporary and modern techniques, all choreographed by the students themselves.
“You want to give everyone the opportunity to dance,” said Hao. The dance program shows sttudents’ potential by requiring previous dance experience as well as auditions in order to be part of the more serious courses in the program. “An audition guarantees a performance,” he said.
When you see students returning semester after semester simply to be a part of the program, at times staying for up to four years, you know they have something truly special there.
“They trust us and we can polish our students’ skills in many ways,” said Hao.
Carmen Kuykendall, a dance major, has been attending FCC and has been with the dance department for five semesters. She has been dancing for six years, and with this being her last semester at FCC she feels that being one of the several student choreographers for the Fall Workshop is her last shot at creating something for FCC.
“Dancing is my main outlet of creative expression. It gets things out, like someone paints or draws,” Kuykendall said. Kuykendall was introduced to dance at a young age, focusing solely on musical theatre. This semester, she is co-choreographing for the first time, and although she has choreographed before, she still recognizes the difficulty and frustration drawn into the fundamentals of leading a group into one uniform idea in dance.
“You Are My Alligator,” a dance piece Kuykendall has been collaborating on with dancer Ashley Allen, tells the story of an alligator personified as a human being. It describes a dysfunctional relationship between a man and a woman. They said, “We’re both really passionate about it, we both feel what the characters are going through.”
In regard to the importance of the selected dance, Kuykendall stresses, “Every single person takes something different. Someone will relate or know someone who has gone through the same thing.”  She said, “The audience will relate to what they see in the piece, even if it’s not what we try to convey. They’ll apply it to their life.” Like Hao said, the most important thing is a quality performance.
Quality performance is something that 23-year-old Amanda Tannous knows a lot about. Since elementary school, Tannous has been involved in various styles of dance, ultimately being introduced to a more skilled form of dance at FCC. In addition to her artistic dance roots, Tannous has also choreographed; she is currently focused on transitioning a dance piece she began last year into a polished dance performance.
“It wasn’t fulfilled enough for me. It’s more finished, and feeding it into a group of dancers works really well,” Tannous said of her yet-untitled piece about domination. Her concept for the piece is similar to a “last one standing” mentality. She explained, “Everyone has something in the world or life that they want to dominate and overcome.”
For Tannous, and many others, dance is a stress reliever. It’s something people can turn to when they feel down but also when they feel happy. “It’s like something coming out from inside of you. I love seeing what people can do with what I create,” she said, “Some can do things I can’t do with it.”
With that, she considers the importance of communication between choreographers and dancers. When she and the other student choreographers create a dance routine they seem to understand their vision and style, a common well minded talent some dancers share.
Artistic director, Hao, compares the more formal side of the Spring Concert to the Fall Workshop. According to Hao, the Fall Workshop has a wide variety of creative pieces to offer, including “Dishes,” created by student choreographer Zachary Garcia.
“The dancers in the program do a beautiful job and they will continue to do that. You will learn a lot from us,” Hao said.
Be sure to check out the FCC’s Fall Workshop on December 2-4.