By Kelli Henderson/entertainment editor

Dancers from across the district will join on South Campus Oct. 20 for the district dance concert Conversations in Rhythm.

The concert will showcase pieces from each campus’ student dance company and display the talents and diversity of TCC’s dance community.

Gypsy Ingram, South dance associate  professor, said South Campus agreed to host the concert last spring and has been preparing for the event ever since. Members of Velocity, the South dance company, have been assigned jobs from marketing the concert to prop setup to hair and makeup to help the concert run smoothly.

“The dancers have really been involved in making this event one the other guest companies as well as our audience will not forget,” she said.

Each of the four companies will perform three pieces.

Velocity will perform The Midnight Commute, an aerial piece where dancers perform 15 feet in the air. Getting the Hint includes jazz and hip-hop to showcase the addiction to Facebook, and The Long Ascent is a contemporary piece symbolizing the struggle with addiction.

SE dance instructor and Rhapsody Movement Company director Jamie Perrin said the concert shows dance is prominent on all campuses, and the students have a chance to learn and make new friends.

“I think it is another learning tool,” she said. “It shows them there is a strong dance community, and seeing what other dancers and other companies are doing opens their eyes to new experiences.”

SE’s Rhapsody Movement will perform a jazz piece based on a 1920s jazz club, a contemporary piece about being in a dreamlike state and a contemporary piece for the happiness dancing brings.

Although four of the five campuses have programs, the dance companies are all different. Kihyoung Choi, director of the NE Movers Unlimited company and dance associate professor, said although the companies are different, the diverse levels of dancers work well in the dance community.

“Audiences enjoy diversity,” she said. “Also at the same time, our students’ level of dance technique to artistry is amazing. Their commitment in each dance piece is exceptional, and [the] audience will see and feel our dance students’ passion and love for dancing.”

The Movers Unlimited has two pieces choreographed by Choi including contemporary ballet and modern dance and a step and hip-hop piece choreographed by dance professor Linda Quinn.

Lacreacia Sanders, NW dance associate professor and director of the campus dance company Mosaic Dance Project, said the company will perform pieces that range from jazz, hip-hop and modern dance.

She encourages others to come to the concert.

“In any dance performance, we hope the audience members can bring their life experiences and backgrounds into the theater and use that to relate to the works in meaningful ways,” she said. “In turn, there are numerous benefits for them personally to see a dance performance. They may leave happy, sad, intrigued, inspired or confused, and it’s all valid.”

Showtime is 7:30 p.m. with doors open at 7 p.m. in the SPAC Carillon Theatre. Tickets are $5 for general admission and free for all TCC students, faculty and staff. The proceeds raised will go to the Dancers Responding to AIDS organization. For more information, contact Ingram at gypsy.ingram@tccd.edu.