UWRF Dance Theatre showcases talent at spring concert

The University of Wisconsin-River Falls’ Dance Theatre showcased 13 dance routines at their 2024 spring concert, which was held from Jan. 31 to Feb. 3 in the Blanche David Theatre. The event featured various dance forms, including modern, ballroom, jazz, ballet, hip hop, and other forms, and represented the efforts of 24 dancers, 12 choreographers, and ten supporting crew members.

“They do it because they love it,” said Mari Kline-Kluck, the director of the Dance Theatre. “[The concert] is the result of these folks’ passion, hard work, and care for each other.” The event wasn’t only made up of students; alums, faculty, and professionals performed as well.

The concert opened with the Afro-Peruvian piece “Festejo,” and moved through “The Dance of Life,” “Apex,” “A Little Bebop,” “Love is Heartbreak,” “Your Empty Chair,” “Leave,” “Spicy Cha Cha,” “Outside (In),” “Mutationem,” “Into Our Moment,” and “Spellbound,” before concluding with the Charleston-inspired piece “Meep Mop Beep Bop.”

While some of the dancers have been performing for many years, others are newcomers to the art. “They all support each other,” Kline-Kluck said. “We know as a company, if we help each other, we're all going to look better in the piece. We're going to have a stronger piece.”

The concert is the result of countless hours of work, which begins even before the start of the semester. Mari Kline-Kluck reaches out to students who participated in Dance Theatre the previous semester, and students who are interested will find choreographers to work with. Then, they submit a proposal for the piece that they want to perform.

Some students choreograph their own routines. Kline-Kluck mentioned one student, Lily Callander, who is both a dancer and a choreographer. “She created the dance,” Kline-Kluck said of “Into Our Moment,” which was choreographed by Callander, as well as students Claire Brindley and Cassie Fay. “She picked the music; she picked the movement…. She figured out what the costumes were going to be… and taught her peers how to do the steps.”

On Jan. 21, the Dance Theatre set up Blanche David Theatre, in what Kline-Kluck called “load in.” Technicians set up the lights, position them, and then apply a marley dance floor to the stage so the dancers will have the traction necessary to perform their routines. Next, is “teching,” where the technicians and choreographers finalize the lighting, and the dancers can practice on-stage for the first time. Before this, they practice in a studio in the Falcon Center. 

Kline-Kluck is not only the director of the Dance Theatre, but a choreographer as well, who created “Outside (In)”, “Spellbound,” and “Meep Mop Beep Bop.” Many choreographers, she said, begin with music; “For me personally, I’ll be moved by something or inspired by something. Sometimes there's a piece of music that I'm like, ‘I have to dance to this.’”

The choreography process is a very collaborative one. “As a choreographer, I have this idea in my head,” Kline-Kluck said. “Then, when I see it on the dancer, sometimes I go, ‘Oh, that doesn't look like it does in my head.’” The choreographer will then adjust the routine until it fits. Kline-Kluck takes her dancers’ feedback into consideration as well. “Oftentimes, my dancers come up with way cooler things than I do,” she said.

This year, the concert featured a commissioned piece, “Spellbound,” where a donor chose the song “I Put a Spell on You” by Nina Simone for Kline-Kluck to choreograph a piece to. Kline-Kluck and her dancers completed the choreography in two-and-a-half rehearsals.

Kline-Kluck received her MFA in Dance: Choreography and Performance from UW-Milwaukee in 2008, and has been an instructor at UWRF since 2004, teaching dance classes, Health and Human Performance courses, and Stage and Screen Arts courses.

“My love and passion is for modern dance, which the company is based on,” she said. Modern dance is a contemporary form of dance that uses abstract movements to convey ideas, emotions, and narratives. “When modern dance started, it was trying to break away from ballet and its strict, codified movements,” Kline-Kluck said. Most dancers study ballet, however, as it provides the foundation for modern dance, and the strength and flexibility needed to perform.

Not only does the Dance Theatre practice modern dance, but Kline-Kluck listed hula, Japanese, Korean, and Mongolian, among others, as forms the Dance Theatre has experimented with. “We've had all kinds of different dance forms over the years,” she said.

Some routines include over a thousand individual movements that dancers must remember. “Some people have referred to dance as like another language,” Kline-Kluck said. “It stimulates a part in your brain that's very similar to language.” This isn’t the only benefit of the art, however. “I think a lot of people are finding it because it's almost therapeutic,” Kline-Kluck said. “Dance is so good for expressing emotions…. It’s a very unique experience.”

UW-River Falls no longer offers its dance education program, as budget cuts led to the program’s cancellation in 2015. “I'm not sure we'll ever get it back, unfortunately,” Kline-Kluck said. Despite this, she said that she’s noticed a growing interest in dance and dance theater at UWRF. “I'm so proud of all these dancers. They're so amazing,” Kline-Kluck said. “Dance Theater is such a supportive experience…. It’s our defiant way of keeping dance on campus.”