The American Spirit Dance Company will tour in Kansas this spring.
The tour will be April 7-13, and the company will go to Olathe, Kansas. In the past, the company has toured in Malaysia, China, Taiwan, Ireland, London, Singapore, Florida, Nashville, and New Mexico.
Jo Rowan, chairman of Ann Lacy School of American Dance and Entertainment and dance professor, said this tour will include masterclasses for students in Olathe and classes for the company dancers.
“Those students are very well trained and very interested in our school and what we do, so we’ll be doing classes for them and then we’ll be doing classes for our own dancers as well to keep them in shape,” Rowan said.
Rowan said the most versatile dancers typically are chosen for the tour.
“We have to go from around 130 kids in the company to around 25,” Rowan said. “Often the students that are chosen to go on tour are the ones who are the most well-rounded. Many of the dancers have to learn numbers which we had in our Spring Show but they were not involved in. So we have to really rehearse intensely once we get back from Spring Break.”
Megan Turner, dance senior, is attending the tour.
“They also take into consideration your grades after midterms since we are being taken out of class,” she said.
Turner said she is excited to have been selected.
“The Ann Lacy School has provided numerous opportunities for me to put in practice what I have learned, so I’m grateful I get to squeeze in one more experience before graduation,” she said.
The dancers for the tour were hand picked by the dance faculty and were notified after Spring Break.
Rowan said she wants the students to have a good experience while on tour.
“We make sure the dancers have two people in a room and they’re treated very well, and they’ll get a per diem,” she said.
The dancers will perform numbers from their Spring Show, Rowan said.
“What I usually do is look at things that would be most appropriate for wherever we go,” Rowan said. “We do choose dances from the Spring Show, but it’s not the exact Spring Show. Instead of about 26 numbers, we might pull that down to about 18, but it’s still a two-hour show.”
The show is in Kansas this year because some of the local dancers there are interested in attending OCU, Rowan said.
“We have dancers in Kansas that are very well trained that have a specific interest in our school,” Rowan said. “We have a connection with Kansas. Whenever we go on tour, it’s usually to have some cultural exchange, or we have people request us. We choose to do our performances where we feel we have a connection with the community.”
Rowan said the students and staff show great professionalism while on tour.
“We really do have a wonderful, professional machine as far as the way our staff handles themselves and the dancers handle themselves,” Rowan said. “It really works very well, but it’s all very professionally done with a lot of responsibility, and it’s joyful but it’s hard work.”
Company manager Lacey Lewey said some students will assist with behind the scenes work during the tour.
“We have eight students tour with us, and that includes costume crew, lighting crew, sound crew, as well as backstage crew,” Lewey said. “The students that we end up taking with us in terms of crew will be our most versatile. They’re going to have a very wide variety of skills in terms of technical ability. The kids that go with us on tour will be the ones that know lighting, sound, all of that because we’re going to be doing a bit of everything.”
Lewey said the crew also will interact with local students while in Kansas.
“With us going to Olathe this year, we actually have a really cool opportunity to work with some of their theater students who are also learning about production,” Lewey said. “They will be able to get some hands-on time with us and our equipment to get a better understanding of what we do. It’s a fun opportunity for our students to interface with kids, and it’s a really cool recruiting opportunity for us as well.”
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