Fall Dance Concert moves the audience through imaginative worlds

The Fall 2025 Dance Ensemble In Concert transported audiences through various dances like spooky themed dances, a jazz funk retro era, a theatrical female empowerment dance and a sad duet that conveyed the broken and complicated relationship between two best friends. 

The spooky themed dances, coinciding with the concert’s debut on Halloween, had their own thematic concepts and distinct characteristics. 

^{Dancers perform to the song “Thriller” by Michael Jackson during a dress rehearsal for the Fall 2025 Dance Ensemble In Concert on Oct. 28. The concert debuted on Halloween, and on debut day, this dance came as a suprise to the audience as the ending credit dance of the night. Dancers who acted as zombies walked from the back doors of the auditorium into the audience, and then all came together on stage. (Paloma Maciel)}

One dance titled “The Fall and the Rise of the Inbetween” featured abstract moves and frequent groupwork, with costumes in rusty tones of beige, brown, red and orange.

^{Dancers of “The Rise and the Fall of the Inbetween” whip their hair while lined up during a dress rehearsal on Oct. 28 for the Fall 2025 Dance Ensemble In Concert. (Paloma Maciel)}

This dance gave an eerie feel as part of the delivery of the piece was the dancers straight, unemotive faces throughout the performance. 

Another dance that followed a dark theme was the closing dance “Exquisite Bellows,” which centered around the storyline of a ballerina being in a cathedral. 

^{Main ballerina Janell Cobian, center left, is held by dancer Aaron Untiveros, while in the gothic, masquerade themed dance “Exquisite Bellows” during a dress rehearsal on Oct. 28 for the Fall 2025 Dance Ensemble In Concert. (Paloma Maciel)}

The dance resembled a masquerade ball having a background ensemble in gothic outfits which were unique between each dancer. 

^{Dancers hold a pose during the gothic masquerade themed dance titled “Exquisite Bellows” at a dress rehearsal on Oct. 28 for the Fall 2025 Dance Ensemble In Concert. (Paloma Maciel)}

Purple and blue shades, black bottoms and ruffles worked as the base of the outfits to provide cohesion to the group, while touches of lace and silver shine created more texture.

According to lead dancer Janell Cobian, the exact storyline is “up to interpretation,” but choreographer of the dance Kiara Kinghorn mentioned that the ballerina is confronting some sort of trauma, which Cobian inferred to be religious trauma because of its setting in the cathedral. 

The combination of ballet with a darker theme is out of the norm, as most ballets focus on prettier, more delicate themes. 

“It feels nice to break the boundaries of ballet for sure and I’m glad that I got the opportunity to do it because I’m always doing classical ballets like ‘Sleeping Beauty,’ ‘The Nutcracker’,” said Cobian. 

Another highlight of the show was a broadway style dance that captured the essence of women empowerment and sexual liberation through the dancers’ sassy and bold moves. 

^{Dancer Essence Cooper, center, crouches while other dancers energetically strut during the broadway style number “Chicago Medley” at a dress rehearsal on Oct. 28 for the Fall 2025 Dance Ensemble In Concert. (Paloma Maciel)}

The costumes resembled showgirl bodysuits, with some having sparkles and everyone having mesh fishnets to complete their looks. 

^{Dancers in the broadway style number “Chicago Medley” move forward with a burst of energy at a dress rehearsal on Oct. 28 for the Fall 2025 Dance Ensemble In Concert. (Paloma Maciel)}

At the debut of the fall concert on Oct. 31, Martha Pamintuan, the artistic director and executive producer of the dance concerts at LBCC, expressed that she had not yet decided on any ideas for the next Dance Ensemble In Concert that will happen in the spring. 

“Sometimes, the world lets us decide… whatever’s happening in the world kind of pushes us as artists to be like ‘I’m going to talk about this’,” said Pamintuan.

^{Dancer Maura Merida Arias leaps in the air during the dance “Tethered” at a dress rehearsal on Oct. 28 for the Fall 2025 Dance Ensemble In Concert. This dance was about the falling in and out of a friendship between two women, during the dance a piece of long fabric was used by both dancers at the same time to symbolize their connection to one another. (Paloma Maciel)}