An ‘Infusion’ of energy

Academy of Dance’s jazz dancers will showcase their talents Sunday at Cal Poly’s Spanos Theatre

By Josh Krane

When Michelle Epperheimer sits down to create a dance, she first looks for an interesting rhythm and a catchy melody.

These are what spark the dance teacher and choreographer’s imagination, allowing her, when she closes her eyes and listens to the music, to see steps, costumes and even the lighting in a dance.

“I’ve been collecting music year-round, and I can tell pretty quickly, ‘This will be a great solo piece’ or ‘This will be a great ensemble piece,’ ” said Epperheimer, who directs dance performances for the Academy of Dance in San Luis Obispo. “Or I can say, ‘I want 10 dancers in this piece’ or ‘This one is going to need some chairs or a bubble machine.’ ”

Soon after the initial inspiration comes the hard part: working weekends and late nights on everything from choreographing and rehearsing steps to editing music and scouring sales racks for costumes.

It’s how Epperheimer has spent the last month and a half as director of this spring’s “Infusion” dance show, a blend of jazz, ballet, lyrical, contemporary and hip-hop dances that will be performed by the San Luis Jazz Dancers, the Academy of Dance’s most advanced group, on Sunday at Cal Poly’s Spanos Theatre.

Even with the exhaustive preparation, Epperheimer said she’s as curious as anyone to see how her dances — which began as a figment of her imagination—will play out in real life.

“The fact that I’m dealing with such beautiful, strong dancers makes it even beyond what I had in my head,” said Epperheimer, who is directing “Infusion” for the second year. “I can’t even tell you how neat it is to see what you’ve created in your head come to life onstage and be meaningful to the dancers and something that they remember.”

The all-local cast of 20, ranging from high school students to working mothers, will dance to the music of a diversity of artists, ranging from classical pianist Chopin to Latin jazz musician Cal Tjader to electro-pop princess Björk.

The wide-ranging dance styles in “Infusion” are a testament to the skill of the show’s performers, said Epperheimer, who when creating dances for the show was confident her dancers could handle anything she threw at them.

“We have a lot of different styles and the dancers are so technical and strong that they’re able to really cross over into different genres,” she said. “We have beautiful ballerinas, we have beautiful jazz technicians, we have people who can get down and do the urban hip-hop style.”

In one of the show’s high-energy pieces, all 20 dancers will perform a contemporary jazz dance to the Björk song “Innocence.” Intentionally incorporating plenty of “jumping and rolling around” into the piece, choreographer Drew Silvaggio said the dance is fun to watch and designed to get the audience pumped up.

“I want the audience to feel like the dancers,” said Silvaggio, a teacher and resident choreographer at Academy of Dance. “I want to get their heart rate up and make them feel like they’re a part of the energy of the room.”

San Luis Obispo High School senior Jenna Lee choreographed her own solo for “Infusion,” a contemporary dance that conveys a sense of childlike playfulness. Though she’s never performed a dance that she choreographed herself, Lee said she’s not that nervous about debuting it on Sunday.

“It’s not amazing right now,” said Lee of the dance, called “Somnium,” set to the music of pianist Vladamir Horowitz, “but by show time it will be good.”

Performer Solina Lindahl, a lecturer in economics at Cal Poly and mother of three, said she’s especially looking forward to dancing to “Infusion’s” hip-hop pieces, a crowd favorite in shows past.

“Hip-hop to me is the ultimate freedom,” said Lindahl, a two-year member of San Luis Jazz. “It’s the opposite of ballet, which is all discipline and technique and ethereal qualities. Instead it’s earthy, it’s natural movement and you’re allowed to put your own flavor in it.”

A two-year member of San Luis Jazz, Lindahl said she’s enjoyed forming friendships with dancers of all ages from the “Infusion” cast.

“You really get intimate with people you normally wouldn’t be,” Lindahl said of being a dancer. “You develop a really strong rapport between a 37-year old and a 13-year old. Everyone is of equal standing. It’s simply the movement and the performance that matters.”

Reach Josh Krane at 781-7864.