Pure Dance Company Marquette performed their spring show this past weekend at the Weasler Auditorium.
Pure currently has 22 members and is a student-run lyrical and jazz performance group for dancers interested in pursuing dance in a collegial setting.
This is the 16th year of Pure’s student-run organization, and practices are held twice a week on Wednesdays and Sundays. The show was a two-hour event including nine dances and a brief intermission.
Hannah Redican, junior in the College of Arts & Sciences and junior co-president, said practice for the show started immediately following winter break.
“There’s student choreographers so everything is student choreographed. We spend our practices just choreographing, learning it and running through it,” Redican said.
While there was not a specific theme, Redican said they wanted to keep the costumes within the spring color palette by incorporating blue and light pastel colors.
Molly Saletta, senior in the College of Nursing and senior co-president, said she was excited for the audience to hear the chosen music.
“I think the audience really loves the music like always [I know my parents say the music’s their favorite part] so probably just hearing some new songs, we got some oldies, we got some Beyonce,” Saletta said.
The opening performance was to the song “Viva La Vida,” by Coldplay, choreographed by social chair, Mia Eraci, and dancers wore silky blue puffy dresses.
The next few dances were big group numbers featuring contemporary and lyrical style dancing.
“idontwannabeyouanymore,” choreographed by dancer Avril Beesley, first-year in the College of Communication, featured dancers in red pants and a prop mirror.
Pure holds auditions to join and Saletta said most dancers are ex competition studio or high school team dancers, so she loves having a club that makes dance less intense, but still fun.
Following intermission, it was announced that Pure Dance raised and donated 100% of their proceeds from snacks to the Misty Copeland Foundation, a non-profit seeking to bring greater diversity, equity and inclusion to the dance world.
After intermission, “Haunted,” choreographed by Hannah Walker, senior dancer in the College of Health Sciences, showcased all black costumes.
Following that, “Natural Woman,” choreographed by Abby Brack, senior in the College of Health Sciences, showed dancers wearing purple silk tanks.
Mackenzie Mancini, junior in the College of Nursing, has been on Pure since her first year at Marquette and said she grew up doing studio dance and joined the dance team in high school.
“It’s nice to stay in shape and stay dancing and have a group of girls to do that with because I like being involved with the school and I’ve made so many friends through Pure,” Mancini said.
Before the last two dances, the MU Naturals, the longest running all-male A Capella group at Marquette, performed as a guest act.
They sang three songs; “I’ve only started running” by Harbour, “Strawberry Swings” by Coldplay and “adapted” by Frank Ocean.
The second to last dance was titled “Lose Control” choreographed by Sophia Tiedge and Mariah Olson, both Sophomores in the College of Communication.
The night ended with the senior dance performance to the Fleetwood Mac song, “Landslide,” choreographed by Saletta.
“It’s been so fun. I think freshman year there was such a core group of older girls that I always looked up to and thought it was fun that they were so close. Now, being that core group of seniors and older girls and seeing the younger girls’ kind of like make their way and find their place here is really special,” Saletta said.
This story was written by Mimi Sinotte. She can be reached at [email protected].
