Trusting Your Body, Finding Your Voice

One danced in memory of his grandmother. Another plans to create a work to thank her parents. A group danced to express their opposition to the death penalty.

UCSD dance students will take to the stage during a three-day show in June to perform pieces that they have created. “We Dance/Our Dances” will play from June 8 to 10 at the Sheila and Hughes POTIKER Theatre, at the La Jolla Playhouse.

The show has come a long way in the past few years, said Jean Isaacs, who teaches dance at UCSD and will direct the endeavor. It felt more like a dance buffet in the past, featuring tap dancing, jazz, breakdancing, modern and post-modern dancing, Isaacs said. But more recently, it has included mostly modern dances.

“It’s about finding your voice, or trusting your body,” Isaacs said.

Usually the show includes six to ten dances. Senior Vanessa Karidis, a political science major, said she wants to tell the story of her relationship with her parents, Kathy and Harry Karidis.

“They have been a profound influence in my life and were able to teach me, in spite of my resistance, about the beauty of human imperfections and the nature of human relationships,” she wrote. “I credit them will all my success and happiness.”