The president of Salt Lake Community College’s Dance Company, Lauren Uribe, hopes to see the college’s dance department grow in the coming years. With strong instructors and spaces on campus, all that’s missing is more enrollment.
Uribe has been dancing for her whole life, delving into various genres like ballet, jazz, tap, contemporary and hip-hop. She began dancing seriously in middle school, competing with the South Jordan-based company Empower Dance. Uribe credits her biggest motivators in dance to her teachers and peers at this company. Specifically, her technique teacher, Kenzie, inspired her and showed her what a dance community could be.
“She embraced having dance be a positive space where [as] a lot of times, it can be really competitive and it can get really negative,” said Uribe. “Her class was a safe place to learn and grow, and I think that has always made me want to be a [kinder] person and a more gracious dancer.”
Uribe saw this environment mirrored as she became involved with the SLCC Dance Company. Whitney Harris, Dance Company director and assistant professor at the college, has 20 years of professional dance experience and “has created a really cool space for dancers here at SLCC,” according to Uribe.
With training in many different dance styles, contemporary stands out as a favorite for Uribe and a focus in the company.
“We get to choose music that we resonate with and that we feel like we can express ourselves to, and then the message can hopefully come across to the audience as we get to perform it,” Uribe explained.
President Lauren
Uribe has been with the SLCC Dance Company for three years, and this year, she took on the title of president. Last year, she served as their publicist, handling the company’s social media. As a communication major, Uribe said she enjoyed being the publicist, and that it sparked her interest in a potential future career in social media.
The responsibilities of the presidency are twofold, according to Uribe. The official side of things includes representing the company at club conferences, planning socials, keeping the club page updated, and pitching funding requests. Then there’s the day-to-day responsibilities, which mainly revolve around keeping a pulse on team members and being there for them.
Uribe said her favorite part of being president is the rewarding opportunity to welcome new students into the company and help them feel welcome and safe, like her teachers have done for her in the past.
Uribe said two of her most memorable experiences as a dancer were the spring dance intensives at Millennium Dance Complex and the Disney Dance Workshops that the SLCC Dance Company has done.
“You kind of get a feel for a more professional level of dancing,” said Uribe of both experiences. “I was feeling really inspired to keep pursuing dance and choreography because when you see someone actually doing the job that you’re interested in, it makes it feel a little bit more real.”
What’s in store for spring 2024?
The SLCC Dance Company spring concert series is set for April 19 and 20, 7 p.m. each night at South City campus’ Grand Theatre. While the company sometimes gets guest choreographers, students solely choreographed this year’s show.
This spring, for the first time, the Dance Company collaborated with the Salt Lake City Stars minor league basketball team, performing five halftime performances for Stars’ games at the Maverik Center and the Delta Center.
The Dance Company is also holding open auditions this spring. They are scheduled for April 26 at 4 p.m. in room 2-128 at the South City campus. According to Uribe, the audition process is always more relaxed than most other dance auditions she’s experienced.
Each audition starts with some across-the-floor technique, and then dancers learn both a jazz and a contemporary combination. There is no required level of dance to audition, but most dancers in the company have at least a few years of experience. There is also a video audition option for those who can’t be there in person on April 26.
Generally, the Dance Company meets every Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 12–2 p.m., with a few extra rehearsal hours surrounding performances. Uribe says her favorite thing about being a part of the Dance Company is the sense of community and purpose it gives her.
“While you’re dancing, and especially when we get on stage, it is just so fun to be able to perform and have the opportunity to continue this art and sport that we all love so much,” she said.
SLCC dance department
Aside from the SLCC Dance Company, the college provides dance classes that are adaptive for all levels of dancers, including beginners. The main styles found at SLCC are ballet, modern, jazz, and tap.
While the list shows over 20 courses, many do not run every semester or end up being canceled due to a lack of enrollment. (Uribe experienced this very thing this spring semester when she registered for Modern Dance II and later saw that the class was canceled.)
Uribe said she hopes to see the Taylorsville Redwood campus dance studio open again, believing it could help the dance department increase both enrollment and general interest in dance at SLCC. (The Redwood dance studio failed to find a new home after the building that housed it, the college’s previous administration building, closed for demolition in 2013.)
The instructors in the dance department all have long and impressive repertoires, and students, including Uribe, have reportedly had great experiences learning from them. Uribe emphasized ballet and modern dance instructor Carly Schaubs’ ability to give constructive feedback and adjust the class to fit all levels.
“Literally anyone could take a ballet [class] or a modern [class] and get something out of it,” Uribe said. She also commented on Rosie Banchero, the jazz instructor. “[Banchero] put a lot of heart and soul into my jazz class, even though there were, like, seven of us. It was just a really fun environment.”
Uribe said if any course could be added to SLCC’s dance department, she would hope for a choreography course. Dance Improv/Choreography (DANC 1700) exists in the catalog, but it doesn’t appear to be an active course, likely because of low enrollment.
“There’s so much that goes into choreography, and I think having a class just to explore all of those concepts would be really cool,” expressed Uribe.
