In the past couple years, the COVID-19 pandemic has left countless people feeling isolated. Despite the current state of the world, the show must go on. The Glendale Community College dance program has done just that and created a virtual dance concert in order to showcase their most recent choreography. The concert is set up in a series of playlists, all accessible through the GCC Dance Department’s Youtube. 

Through these videos, the concert offers a mix of dance pieces topped off with performative videography in order to illustrate the hardships and isolation of the pandemic. Each segment follows the contemporary style of dance. The concert features choreography from many of the dancers and faculty themselves, each creating a piece that highlights their own journeys. 

These specific compositions all begin with a short introduction from the choreographer, followed by their dance pieces. Aimee Wong, one of the dancers in the showcase, choreographed a moving piece entitled, “Hills and Valleys.” “This piece depicts the highs and lows that one may experience in life,” states Wong. A faculty member for the GCC Dance Department, Lisa Jay, also created her own dance sequence. Her video, titled “Strut” includes a group dance number that features the entire team of dancers. “The piece that I choreographed is really just a celebration of the fact that we all got to be together in person again,” says Jay. 

In the final video of the playlist, the directors of the showcase, Victor Robles and Patt Paczynski gave insight into the creative process behind the series of videos.“Victor wanted the students to think about how things were going to be filmed, what angle, to really approach it as making a video instead of just staging a dance,” Paczynski stated. “The virtual dance concert proved to be a collaborative effort between faculty and dancers, who came together to put on a show despite all of the recent obstacles.” 

To view the virtual dance concert, visit:

https://www.glendale.edu/Home/Components/News/News/21886/8046 .

Dominique Rocha can be reached at [email protected].