NEWS & EVENTS CALENDAR
The award-winning Foothill College Repertory Dance Company, under the baton of director Bubba Gong, presents Soul & Inspiration, its 26th annual spring fundraising concert, Friday and Saturday, June 1–2, at 7:30 p.m. in the Smithwick Theatre at Foothill College. In addition, the Smithwick Theatre will be transformed for the company’s homage to Grease, and patrons are invited to wear 1950s costumes and twist and shout with the company dancers during the pre-show festivities at 7 p.m.
The two-hour dance extravaganza will feature a variety of dance forms, from Broadway to burlesque, ballet to tap and jazz, world beat to hip-hop, and contemporary to modern. The concert provides a showcase for original student works, favorite repertory choreographies and world premieres. The Foothill College Dance Program emphasizes diversity in dance education, says Gong. With works from Mozart to Madonna, Grease to Bollywood, Irish clogging to Mexican Ballet Folkorico, and the premiere of Gong's Peking Opera-inspired Dragon Emperor, the Soul & Inspiration concert lineup reflects this commitment to artistic multiculturalism.
Resident student choreographies by Tami Burton, Bailey Donnelly, Emilie Dunworth, David Eastman and Erika Mueller were chosen by audition and will be featured in the performance. Guest performers include Melany Montero, the Foothill College Pom Squad, contemporary soloists Elise Dubuisson, Megan McAlister and Joce Satterberg, and vocalist Daniel Grimsby. Gong, who celebrated his quarter-century mark at Foothill last year, has choreographed an ambitious and entertaining two-hour production which highlights hits from Grammy Award-winning vocalists Adele and a special tribute to Whitney Houston. He also tackles a medley of dances from the popular film Burlesque starring Fosse techniques and Gong's unique fusion of hip-hop/street dance and musical theatre technique.
At the June 1 show, Foothill College President Judy C. Miner, Ed.D., will introduce Susan Gutkind, Ph.D., who was recently named the college’s new kinesiology division dean and athletics director. Prior to her assignment at Foothill, Gutkind was the assistant athletics director for student-athlete services at Fresno State University (CSU) where she worked with faculty and coaches to dramatically improve the academic progress and graduation rates of student-athletes. Prior to that, she was the assistant athletics director for academics and student-athlete welfare at Tennessee Technological University.
The show features Danielle Grimsby of Belmont; Anna Sullivan and Angela Herrera of Campbell; Jesse Ponce and Gilly Kelleher of Cupertino; Justin Weatherford, Donni Wang, Hsuanfen Wang, Geremy Pruitt, Hitch Larhmimi, Adrian Johnson, David Eastman, Bailey Donnelly and Anna Avny of Los Altos; Jocelyn Satterberg of Los Gatos; Nick Poole and Aaron Keigher of Menlo Park; Erika Mueller, Lisa Klein, Daniel Kidane, Guanyu "Echo" Ke, Juan Hernandez, Chris Guevara, Elise Dubuisson, Lucas Randall, Matthew Randall, Jenna Foss, Jessica Foss, Jazie Sanabria, YehFri Saputra, Kid (Lingxu) Song, Jialu Xu, David Sullivan, YungHsing Yao and Milihnza Garcia of Mountain View; Amanda Pabian, Ashleigh Odom, Marielle Macuil, Magen Gong-Jensen, Tami Burton, Jose Beltran and Anthony Barnes of Palo Alto; Lizzy Horve of Petaluma; Lizeth Cuevas and Taylor White of Redwood City; Rawan Jabari of San Bruno; Cassandra Murray, Terin Kandarian, Bubba Gong and John Celona of San Carlos; Nikita Patel, Megan McAlister, Peite Lim, Michelle Green, Anusha Anand, Shanika Badoya-Mulkerin, Christina Cortez and Emilie Dunworth of San Jose; Lori Watts of Santa Clara; Trey Miller, Jenn Loomis, Tara Harte-Rodriquez; and Amy Chung of Sunnyvale.
The production design team includes Bubba Gong, artistic director and founder; John Celona, technical director; Tami Burton and Terin Kandarian, assistant directors; Jennifer Loomis and Angela Herrera, polish captains; Cassandra Murray, Taylor White, Anna Sullivan and Erika Mueller, women's captains; Matt Randall and Trey Miller, men's captains; Christina Moore, theatre manager; Andrea Schwartz, lighting designer; and Katherine Andrews, featured costume designer.
Gong founded the Foothill College Repertory Dance Company to broaden and expand the classroom experience. A Bay Area Critics Circle winner, and Dean Goodman and Dramalogue awards recipient, he was Foothill's first full-time tenure track dance instructor and has led the dance company to four consecutive Olympiad of the Arts first place titles and coached the champion Foothill Pom Squad. Gong has brought guest master artists from Pilobilus, MOMIX and Gregory Hines, as well as the San Francisco and Bolshoi ballets, and the national tap dance convention to Foothill College. Serving on boards of the Peninsula Community Foundation and Silicon Valley Arts Council, Gong is an advocate for dance, and his work has been commissioned by the Chinese Cultural Historical Project, National Endowment for the Arts and Stanford University. He earned bachelor's and master's degrees in dance from Stanford University.
Tickets are $25, general admission; $20, seniors and students; $15, children under age 12; and $100, reserved angel patron. Order tickets by phone from the Foothill College Box Office at (650) 949-7360 or purchase at the door one hour prior to curtain.
Parking Lot 8 provides stair and no-stair access to the theatre. Patrons must purchase the required campus parking permit for $3 at dispensers in any student lot. Dispensers accept one-dollar bills and quarters.
Foothill College is located off I-280 on El Monte Road in Los Altos Hills. For additional information, call or e-mail Foothill College Director of Dance Bubba Gong at GongiiiBubba@foothill.edu or (650) 949-7354, access www.foothill.edu or call (650) 949-7360.