Cal Poly’s Orchesis Dance Company completes Winter 2022 show
Cal Poly’s Orchesis Dance Company just finished its last weekend of its winter 2022 show, Convergence.
The production ran for two weekends, totaling six shows in the Cal Poly Spanos Theater.
Cal Poly Dance professor Diana Stanton, who directed the show, said that the opportunity to be back in person together had a huge influence on the themes of the show.
“Convergence is the title of the show, and that was decided last year when we knew we were going to be in person again,” Stanton said. “And it’s celebrating the point at which we come together, which we were just hungry for.”
Convergence was Orchesis’ 52nd installment of their annual show, and the first one in person since Orchesis 50 in 2020.
Orchesis dancer and administrative intern Emily Chung says that coming back together for the first time since the start of the pandemic made the performance extra special.
“Being able to come back together this fall and prepare for this incredible show that we get to perform not only on stage but with an audience has been a really special moment for everybody in the dance community, and I would hope also our audiences,” Chung said.
The production consisted of 12 dances choreographed by 11 different choreographers, some of whom were guest professionals and some of whom were Cal Poly professors and students.
Forty-eight dancers participated in the performance, including the 28 who are a part of the Orchesis Dance Company, and 20 who are enrolled in some of Cal Poly’s repertoire classes.
Stanton said she hopes that audiences felt inspired by the performance.
“The real power of dance is it says what words can’t,” Stanton said. “So, what I’m really hoping that audiences get is the power of that connection between and among people, the power of the arts to speak what we don’t often have words for, and that they invest themselves into having that experience.”
Orchesis plans on getting back together next fall, and is already entering the planning stages for its next performance.
