Dancing with the Athletes | Friends of Brockport Dance

By Juliana Utz

On Tuesday, February 16th dancers, athletes, and their collective peers filled the Tuttle North Gymnasium’s seats in anticipation of the 2nd annual Dancing with the Athletes. The Student Dance Organization, or SDO, and the College at Brockport Athletic Teams sponsored the event. Similar to ABC’s television show, “Dancing with the Stars,” this fundraiser pairs two members of the dance department with two members of the designated sports team. The winning team will have a large portion of the proceeds donated to their selected charity of choice. This year the fundraiser not only doubled in size, but also received generous donations from eight local vendors to be raffled off.

Fifteen teams took the stage to impress the judges with their creativity, dance skills and collaborative effort. From dancing with umbrellas in a kiddy pool for the Swim team to football players pirouetting in tutus, the teams pulled out all of the stops to deliver a fantastic show. Judges included two faculty members from the athletic department, two faculty members of the dance department, and the BSG president. SDO not only participated in the dancing, but used their extensive lighting and sound abilities to provide all of the technical happenings during the show.

The final team of the night, Men’s Basketball team members Olusola Adeneran and Lance Legister paired with freshman dancers Zack Frazee and Shawn Powell, impressed judges and audience members with their fusion of dance and athletics. It was the surprise costume change into afro wigs and sun glasses that brought down the house, and eventually crowned them as the winning team. Powell described his experience working with the athletes, saying “They took the same hardworking no non-sense approach they used in basketball games while in dance practice. Rehearsing as hard as they did definitely added to their performance being such a crowd pleaser. They were intense and hardworking and it showed on the floor.” The Men’s Basketball’s charity was Hoops for Hope.

SDO member Jessica Lynch explains, “Dancing with the Athletes is a great way to fuse together two different sides of the college campus. Each partner gets a chance to experience life in the other person’s shoes.”
This highly successful event would have not been possible without SDO President Stephanie Dattellas who coordinated and produced the seamless show.
By the end of the evening, SDO raised $1,649.80.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Bill Evans Dance Company presents Dancing in the Vernal Equinox
March 18, 2012, 3pm Hochstein Performance Hall, Rochester, NY
$20 general / $15 seniors / $10 students and children
Tickets are available at the door or can be reserved by email: billevansdance@hotmail.com

DANCE/Hartwell
March 29-31 7:30pm Hartwell Theater, the College at Brockport, NY
$15 general / $10 seniors, alumni, faculty, staff / $8 students
Tickets can be reserved at the Tower Fine Arts Box Office:
585-395-ARTS (2787)

DANCE/Strasser
April 12-14 7:30pm Rose L. Strasser Studio, the College at Brockport, NY
$15 general / $10 seniors, alumni, faculty, staff / $8 students
Tickets can be reserved at the Tower Fine Arts Box Office:
585-395-ARTS (2787)

Beware Moving Bodies, MFA Thesis
April 22 12pm and 2pm ARTISANworks (565 Blossom Rd) Rochester, NY
$12 general / $8 students and seniors
Tickets can be purchased at the door or from Hannah Seidel in advance (in person)

Sankofa African Dance and Drum Ensemble
April 26-28 7:30pm, April 29 2pm
$15 general / $10 seniors, alumni, faculty, staff / $8 students
Tickets can be reserved at the Tower Fine Arts Box Office:
585-395-ARTS (2787)