By CRISTINA TRAPANI-SCOTT

When the award-winning Tecumseh Dance Theatre Company takes the stage at the Tecumseh Center for the Arts Saturday, Jan. 23, for its performance of Chiaroscuro, the pull of darkness and light will become a rhythmic expression of movement. While the program showcases the strength and grace of the dancers who study at the Tecumseh Dance Workshop, the show is anything but a typical recital.

“Every year we try to do something different, to have some central title genre to fall into,” said Deena Bryan, executive director of Tecumseh Dance Theatre Company. “This year we wanted to explore all aspects of good versus evil, light versus dark, happy versus sad.”

In doing that, Chiaroscuro will balance light, playful dances that represent good with heavier dances that represent evil.

“We try, as a company, to get away from two-minute recitals and dances to productions where we have a theme. We are doing longer dances, mini ballets, but it’s not only a ballet company. They do all styles of dance. We are gearing it more toward dance productions that have story lines,” Bryan said, adding that this year’s concept really encourages the dancers to explore the emotions through movement.

While the pieces are connected to the theme, they stand alone as well. Each teacher, including Bryan, Helene Knierim, Annamia Rumley, Joe Briggs and Rhea Kupisz as well as guest choreographer Anna McGarry of the University of Michigan School of Dance have all choreographed pieces for the performance.

The Tecumseh Dance Theatre Company is a pre-professional offshoot of the Tecumseh Dance Workshop with 16 senior members and 11 junior members. The program began after Knierim became artistic director of the studio 14 years ago. Knierim said her daughter Annamia Rumley and Bryan, who was a student at Tecumseh Dance Workshop, have built the company to what it is today. Bryan said there always was a group of students who did extra performances at things like Strut and the Taste.

“We always tried to do something for the kids where dance is their life,” she said.
About six or seven years ago, the company evolved from that group to be a pre-professional dance company it is today, where members are drawn by invitation from the pool of students taking classes at Tecumseh Dance Workshop. The dancers rehearse three times a month on Saturdays for five to six hours. Knierim said that’s on top of the dance classes the students take during the week. Members are by invitation only.

“We do expect excellence from every member, not just perfection in dance, but we make sure the kids are working as hard as they possibly can. It’s amazing when you expect excellence, they rise to the occasion,” said Bryan.

Hard work and dedication to excellence has paid off. Company members have been accepted to pre-professional events such as summer pre-professional schools including the American Ballet Theatre in New York, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Company in Long Island City, NY, the Cincinnati Ballet in Cincinnati, Ohio, the Joffrey Ballet Company in Chicago, Ill., and Blue Lake Arts Camp in Crystal Lake, and many of the dancer performed in the Nutcracker at the Tecumseh Center for the Arts.

“I think the pre-professional schools have been a major boost because it’s the level we’ve been wanting to get to and it takes time to get there,” said Helene. “I’m just proud of them because it takes years to make a dancer. It’s a lot of detailed hard work and we are finally getting to appoint where these students can go out there and audition for these things and get accepted.”

In addition, the company earned a recent award in excellence for epaulement at the Dupree Dance Expo and Competition in Chicago and a Dare to Be Different Award for original choreography at the Cathy Roe Dare to Be Different Day in Howell in May.
The performance of Chiaroscuro will be Saturday, Jan. 23, at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are available at the Tecumseh Center for the Arts box office at 400 N. Maumee Street in Tecumseh, 423-6617.