Jazz Students Present Dance Demo

3 p.m. December 8, Potter Center

            For anyone who's ever wanted to learn or study dance, it's not too late.  Students from Jackson Community College's Jazz Technique class will present a free performance and jazz technique demonstration at 3 p.m. Sunday, December 8, in the Michael Baughman Theatre, Potter Center.

            Under the direction of Professor Martha Petry Joyce, this group of 22 dancers were beginners just a few months ago, but have come together marvelously over the semester.  As part of the presentation, they will demonstrate a dance warm-up, jazz technique and movement sequence.  Then the dancers will perform seven pieces in the jazz style.

            "Part of jazz training is to become an expressive, performing artist, and this is another part of the students' education as dancers," Joyce said. "This particular group of dancers work so well together.  For a group that I had never danced with or taught with, by the third class they were blowing me away, they were exceptional in terms of enthusiasm and energy and the desire to get it right."

            For anyone curious about how to look at dance or what a particular dance piece may be saying, or those who wonder what taking a jazz class may be like, this event is for you. 

            "Anyone, whether a teen-ager or young adult to men and women in their 30s or 40s who may be interested in dance, come out and see this demonstration.  It's never too late to dance," Joyce said.

            This event is free and open to all. 

            Martha Petry Joyce is a professor of Language, Literature and Arts at JCC.  She studied ballet at the College of St. Theresa in Minnesota and toured with the Minnesota Ballet Company for three years.  She has taught dance and choreography with the former Jackson Area Dance Council and served as its president.  She has taught at JCC for more than 20 years, teaching writing, literature and poetry classes in addition to dance. 

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