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Last Friday, Colorado State University senior dance majors Katelyn Doyle, Cassie Eron, Madison Martinek, Jenny Trenchard and Mohammed York performed the opening night of their 2018 Fall Dance Capstone Concert. The show was held at the University Dance Theatre at the University Center for the Arts, and was directed by CSU dance professor Chung-Fu Chang.
Collegian Reviews (Illustration by Caleb Carpenter | Collegian)
In a culmination of dance education and personal life stories, the show attracted a close-knit audience of professors, family members and friends of the dancers. Lynn Doyle, the mother of dancer Katelyn Doyle, said she felt especially close to the dancers after watching them develop over the years.
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“I have gotten to know her two roommates Jenny Trenchard and Madison Martinek, and watching them in the first four numbers makes me feel really good knowing where they come from and where they are now,” said Lynn Doyle.
A touching video introducing the five students before the performances showed clips of them in class throughout the years in the CSU dance program. The video included short interviews about the dancers’ future aspirations and ended by asking the audience to allow the dances to make them think about their lives.
The show’s title, “Testimony: Five Stories in Motion,” describes the show effortlessly, as each of the five dancers presented testimonies through movement. The choreography performed by the dancers and other members of the CSU dance community not only portrayed important issues in the dancer’s lives but also issues in the world today. The students used their voices to speak up about topics such as sexual assault and institutional racism. Intricate lighting and cohesive costuming turned heartfelt choreography into a visually appealing production.
The show itself consisted of a variety of dance styles from modern to hip-hop and a wide array of music choices such as Arctic Monkeys, J. Cole and poetry by E.E. Cummings. There was also live singing, showing the diverse backgrounds and experiences of the capstone performers.
As the audience left the theater, there were posters made for each of the dancers with their headshots and images of them dancing, honoring their hard work and bringing the Capstone Concert full circle.
The University Dance Theatre is in the University Center for the Arts at 1400 Remington St., Fort Collins.
Molly Strader can be reached at entertainment@collegian.com or on Twitter @mkstrader.
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