Students in white dresses, black suits and ties grabbed the audience’s attention during the “Battle of the Batons” opening dance choreographed by Daniel Berney at the Spring Advanced Dance concert on Friday, May 5.

The concert completed its first show of three on Friday, May 5, at 8 p.m. in Marsee Auditorium. The concert continued on Saturday, May 6, at 8 p.m. and concluded on Sunday, May 7, at 3 p.m.

Liz Hoefner Adamis and Jonathan Bryant directed the concert, two of El Camino College’s full-time dance instructors.

The show had 14 dances, with nine choreographed by students from the choreography class and the other five by faculty and guest choreographers.

“Everything went smoothly,” Adamis said. “It’s a lot of the same dancers… because we are still building back from COVID-19.”

Adamis added they are trying to return the dance program to where it was before the pandemic.

“They did a fantastic job with what they had,” Adamis said.

During Act One, guests witnessed various dance pieces, including “My Heart of Hearts,” choreographed by dance student Brian Helm; “Asylum,” a piece choreographed by Janae Morris; and a solo piece by Julissa Carbajal titled “A Lullaby For Dad.”

After the show, Helm said he had a great time performing on stage.

“It was fun putting in all of the practice and hard work and then finally getting on stage to do it,” Helm said. “Once the show started, you know we just kept going, and we all had a lot of fun.”

During the final dance of Act One, “Carnivale,” an upbeat piece choreographed by Kanisha Bennett, who has an honorary doctorate in humanities, provoked applause from the audience as students dressed in bright and sequenced outfits made their way to the stage.

The concert began with three dancers. Throughout the performance, a few more came out and began to dance as a whole to “Like Ah Boss” by Machel Montano.

Guest choreographer of the concert Hector Luis Rivera joined students on stage as they performed his dance piece, “Bambula.”

Women donned colorful, flowy dresses, and the men wore yellow and orange collared shirts.

The bomba-style dance included the use of a “bomba drum,” a wooden drum that originates from Puerto Rico.

Rivera joined the students during the performance in a dance circle. To conclude the dance, each student held fabric signs that read, “Vamos bailar bambula” and “Remember to remember.”

Mia Vargas, one of the dancers in Rivera’s piece, said she had not performed in a while and was nervous.

“We have been performing on that stage for a couple of days now,” Vargas said. “But with people there, it’s like, are they judging me? Do they like it?… But at the end of the day, I am doing it mostly for me and to connect with the audience.”

Following the 14 dances, the show concluded with all the students returning to the stage to give their final bows.

Dua Lipa’s “Don’t Start Now” played in the background while they gave their bows. The students also performed a final dance break to the song while the curtain began to close.

Many audience members left delighted by the concert, including Mia Chavarria, a 20-year-old engineering major who came to the show with one of her friends.

“I loved the show,” Chavarria said. “I was cheering for every dancer even though I knew absolutely no one there, and I loved the variety of dances.”