XPRESS yourself
By Grace Carballo ‘17
Yesterday night in Bovard was the Spring Xpressions show and it lived up to all the hype. Xpressions, founded relatively recently in 2009, is completely student-run, with student choreographers and dancers, and even funded by USG, so y’all keep doing your thing cuz it is working!
The theme of the show was “Time is Dancing”, with some particularly stellar song choices and throwbacks (Here’s looking at you, Fergalicious). The 27 dancers who make up the Xpressions spring company represent all different years and a wide variety of majors but share a love and talent for dance.
I didn’t hear any “please don’t take any photos” announcements, but I have pretty selective hearing. Still, if you missed it, I did attempt to capture a few of my favorite moments and favorite dancers (S/O to my beautiful Big, Sam) and I had my flash off because I’m respectful and tolerable to be around in crowds!
Hip hop, modern, tap- you name it, they can do it. Even if you can’t think of the name because you don’t know as much about dance as you’d like to, they can do it.
I’m always very impressed by those who are phenomenal dancers, especially classmates whose talents totally came out of the blue. If I could dance, I think I would probably tell everyone about it and make them watch me do cool spins and things, but I admire their humility as much as their talent.
One of the coolest things about Xpressions dancers, besides their wicked talent, is that they all put together an amazing show while still juggling their busy schedules. Sam, whose dancing abilities the rest of our lineage failed to inherit (probably because we are not genetically related), is also involved in a Sketch comedy group, has an awesome film internship, teaches a kickboxing class at the Lyons Center, and still manages to be both studious and fun.
It is truly awe-inspiring what people these days can do! You would think this would motivate me to achieve greatness of my own but now all I want to do is watch Dirty Dancing, Step Up, and then if I have time, Step Up 2- the Streets.
If the “Time is Dancing” performance inspired you to try to find your own well-hidden dancing abilities, you have some time to rehearse now before the tryouts to join the fall company.
Congratulations to all the amazing Xpressions dancers, especially those graduating (Kirsten, Cassie, and Ashely especially)! To slightly misquote the fabulous choice of last song, “I’ve had the time of my life (watching you dance) and I owe it all to you”.
