TROY dancers get ‘iLumnated’ | Arts & Culture

TROY – Troy University’s Department of Theatre and Dance Summer Intensive focused its light on those dancing in the dark Tuesday.

The Troy Dance Repertory Ensemble’s annual training exercise is a week-long requirement for members where they learn new choreography, rehearse and train in various dance styles such as ballet, contemporary, pilates, musical theater, contemporary jazz, stretch-and-turn, hip hop and conditioning.

Tuesday’s work, however, focused on dance forms with which most TDRE dancers aren’t too familiar. The session was led by members of “i-Luminate,” the dance-in-the-dark show that placed third on last summer’s television competition series “America’s Got Talent.”

The group is performing through Aug. 12 at Six Flags Over Georgia near Atlanta and volunteered its day off to lead a workshop for the dance ensemble. TROY alumna and former TDRE dancer Adrienne Hicks is performing with the group at Six Flags.

“i-Luminate is made up of a very diverse group of professional dancers who have graciously given their one day off to introduce TDRE to styles of dance with which most are terribly unfamiliar,” said Deborah Hicks, who coordinates the repertory. “It’s has been a terrific experience, especially as it’s very unlikely that our dancers would ever get an opportunity like this one all in one day. From Afro-Fusion to Popping and Locking, TDRE has been inundated in forms of dance we’ve never before entertained on campus and it’s rare that the majority of a professional company is available to offer their expertise to anyone.”

In addition to the TDRE members, the Department of Theatre and Dance hosted four invited high school dancers for the intensive: Grace Mills, of Huntsville, Sarah Pratt, of Birmingham, Janie Brown, of Dothan, and Hanna Aldredge, of Newnan, Ga.  Mills and Pratt were awarded full scholarships to the intensive after auditioning at Alabama Dance Council’s 2012 Dance Festival. In addition, two other high school students, Carly Smith, of Troy, and Caylee Sanders, of Goshen, attended.

Overlapping TDRE’s intensive, the Department is also hosting its high school Performance and Technical Theater Intensive. New TDRE dancers and the high school dancers will perform in the Summer Intensive Showcase at 1 p.m. on Saturday, July 28 in the Trojan Center Theater. That performance is free and open to the public.

Information Source: Troy University