Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 01/27/17
Ernesto Balderas
Academic Enhancement Coordinator Assistant
417 N 200 W
Cedar City, UT 84721
714-876-7125
Webpage: https://nesto20112011.wixsite.com/ernestobalderas
Melding Chinese and Modern Dance at Southern Utah University
Student draws from Chinese Dance Theater Influence to create original dance piece Semblance
11/17/15 – Cedar City, Utah: At Southern Utah University, the College of Performing and Visual Arts held their annual Student Dance Concert this year known as Creative Variations from November 11 to November 16, 2015. Many talented artists presented works that they had been working on for months however one stood out: Ernesto Balderas. Mr. Balderas choreographed and performed an original dance piece entitled Semblance for the concert with his partner and wife Elizabeth Balderas. This piece used remarkable shapes and movement in a duet dance piece to blend Chinese Dance Theater and Modern Dance techniques to create a piece never before seen in Southern Utah. This piece encouraged incoming SUU students to broaden their movement vocabulary to other techniques around the world and truly expand the world of dance at Southern Utah University.
At Southern Utah University, classes are taught primarily through the lens of ballet, modern, tap, and jazz technique. Mr. Balderas recognized that many students often felt trapped because of the limited vocabulary that they felt they could work with being primarily surrounded by modern technique. “I felt there needed to be a change in our outlook as a dance department if we wanted to build up versatile and strong artists for today’s world. I knew I needed to show an example of that and so I turned to Chinese Dance and their beautiful use of shape and time as inspiration for my piece,” Mr. Balderas said. He then went on to find inspiration from Cloud Gate Dance Theater Company and their piece Bamboo Dream. After presenting this piece in the Student Dance Concert he found that many students came to ask him for help in using other cultural movement styles such as Butoh Theatre technique from Japan, Bharatanatyam dance technique from India, and more. His piece has set in motion a wave of new ideas to further bloom for future generations at Southern Utah University.
Ernesto Balderas is a Dance Performance Major at Southern Utah University and has been dancing for two and a half years now. He is currently working on restaging his piece Semblance for his last Senior project and has been accepted to perform and present works at the American Collegiate Dance Festival in Eugene, Oregon from March 28 to April 2, 2017. He has received several commendations from professors including Most Improved Male Dancer of the 2015-2016 school year.