SE dancers feeling the soul through the musical rhythms
by Brian Shults, se news editor

    A revamped dance company on SE Campus will peel back the layers of the American persona by reflecting dancing styles from ballet to hip-hop in their upcoming recital Soul Peel.

   “I wanted the dances to reveal the different layers of emotions Americans have felt recently and I wanted to explore how events can cause us to go deeper into our emotions and feel. It is incredible how one event, like 9/11, peeled the layers off our society,” Jasmine Bates, SE dance company instructor, said in regards to choreographing Soul Peel.

   Enrollment in the dance performance course was allowed solely through auditions. Fifteen females were accepted, Bates said.

   When initially choreographing, she did not base the dances on what kinds of dancers would be accepted, but instead on her own reflections of the American persona, Bates said.

   “Paying attention to America’s reaction after 9/11, I started thinking about the people as a nation showing such a strong and stoic outlook. We have changed since then by spending more time with our families and the people we love,” she said.

   The dance styles vary from modern dance to jazz and hip-hop, including portions of ballet as well, Bates said.

   “All the elements of those forms of dancing are intrinsically in one piece.

   Each dance style blends into the other, because that’s the way life is: seamless,” she said.

   Soul Peel will be performed free for students in the Roberson Theatre on SE Campus, Friday, Oct. 25, at 8 p.m. and Saturday, Oct. 26, at 2 and 8 p.m.

   Since the new SE Dance Company has all new participants, Bates saw it as an opportunity to teach all aspects of dancing, including professional etiquette and public speaking, in order to teach the students well-rounded career skills.

   “Public speaking is important to being able to explain a dance piece to an audience. I wanted the girls to know the professional etiquette that goes on behind the curtains along with teaching them the actual performance,” she said.

   Performing dancers include Betty Bowen, Miranda Comer, Umeka Dixon, Nadia Gamez, Eboni Gray, Emily Hughes, Reagen Keith, Ebony Miller, Kim Pham, Lisa Rodriguez, Beth Sellers, Brooke Skeels, Arianna Thompson, Brittany Thompson and Maxine Yap.

   Bates has never taught dance at the collegiate level, but has taught at lower levels of education and has an extensive résumé´ in dance.

   “I moved from my home in St. Louis at the age of 13 to study at Houston’s High School for the Performing and Visual Arts. After that, I studied dance at SMU on a scholarship,” she said.

   Following graduation, Bates worked at Dallas Black Dance Theatre and Bruce Wood Dance Company. Outside of TCC, she now has her own dance company, Ruwach En Jasmine (the spirit of God in Jasmine), which has opened for singer Yolanda Adams.