Arcadia High Alums Evoke Passion For Dancing

It will be terrific when the city this fall.

Hopefully, it will showcase performances like the one I thoroughly enjoyed Saturday at Baldwin Park's 600-seat Performing Arts Center, which that city's school district built in 1996.

Dancers from the Evoke Dance Company put on the production, called "Life Renditions." A group of 18 young artists formed Evoke last year; its founders include a dozen alums.

The program produced by this amazing group of 20-somethings could easily have been staged the Pantages in Hollywood. It was that good.

The choreography, costuming, and complex dance steps of Saturday's show were a joy to watch and evoked genuine feeling from the more than 500 enthralled audience members.

The performance portrayed defining moments, attitudes and struggles experienced during various stages of life.

A number called “The Crash” depicted a broken relationship between a young man and woman. The quality of that number was comparable to any performed on the top-rated television show “So You Think You Can Dance.”

A medley of songs and dance styles called “Travelers Unite” featured eight of the company's principle dancers wearing masks as they performed delightful, rapid-fire steps with complementary hand movements and facial expressions.

Dancers in the whimsical number “Too Cool For School” expressed the unbridled enthusiasm of elementary school students to tunes of the Jackson Five’s “A-B-C” and Lil Mama’s “G-Slide.”

But even more inspiring than the program was the realization that these young adults have chosen to run this company completely on their own, without the structure of a high school, university or other pre-existing organization.

The mission established by the company's three founders, Jeniffer Hsu, Justine Hsu and Josephine Lau, is to "dance, evoke and give."

The company does all of this.

They recently taught 100 amateurs a on April 21 to raise awareness for the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life. Also, a portion of the proceeds from every Evoke production is donated to worthy organizations. (Proceeds from "Life Renditions" benefited Feed the Children.)

These upbeat individuals are not sitting around watching television, playing video games, hanging out at clubs, or getting into any other trouble. In fact, almost all of them have full-time jobs, and many are in relationships or even married.

Justine, Josephine, Jeniffer, and the Evoke Dance Company are certainly living their mission to dance, evoke and give.

Read more by Scott Hettrick at ArcadiasBest.com and at his HollywoodInHiDef.com.

Hettrick's City Views blog is not intended to reflect any position of the Arcadia Chamber of Commerce, where he is Executive Director.