Every year the Theatre/Dance Department puts together DanceScapes, a dance concert allowing students and faculty members to showcase performances they’ve been working on throughout the entire academic year.

This year, 10 pieces will be performed in the production, including a guest artist, seven students and two faculty members.

Heather Klopchin, the DanceScapes guest artist and associate professor at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minn., is a professional dancer in Minneapolis.

Last fall, Klopchin came to campus for an “intense” rehearsal with the students.

“This immersion is a great opportunity for our students,” Artistic Director for DanceScapes Barbara Grubel said. “It emulates a professional work day schedule for a dancer and gives them direct contact with a new choreographer. Both are important for growth and as a dancer.”

Seniors Franceszka Lesniak and Justin Nothem will be performing a tap duet piece titled “Tap It Out.”

“It’s definitely a fun piece,” Nothem said. “There’s a lot of cool rhythms and it should be pretty exciting.”

Also involved in the upcoming performance are junior Anna Brittnacher and senior Brienna Schenck, who are both student choreographers.

Brittnacher choreographed the piece titled “The Voice of Autism” from a poem about Autism written by a girl she worked with last summer.

“That experience sort of inspired me to perform this piece,” Brittnacher said.

In the piece, the dancers will be saying lines from the poem, and Brittnacher will sing a song she used to sing to another girl she worked with.

This is Brittnacher’s first year choreographing and her third year dancing in this performance. Brittnacher will dance in three other pieces along with the piece she is choreographing.

Schenck choreographed the piece titled “Deranged Away,” which will be performed by eight dancers.

“It started out as ‘movement for movement sake,’” Schenck said. “I thought of it at the beginning of this year. It just sort of came off with a little phrase that I made up.”

This will be Schenck’s last year performing in DanceScapes.

“It’s kind of a bittersweet moment,” Schenck said.

In addition to choreographing a piece, Schenck will also dance in four pieces.

“The whole production is one of the great things about our department,” Grubel said.

The production includes lighting designers, costume designers, stage management, management and publicity and a backstage crew.

“I think the program is really exciting,” Grubel said. “We have pieces that are contemporary modern, a hip-hop piece, a tap piece and a tango piece. It’s a high-energy, thought-provoking array of work.”

Grubel said the year will also bring many improvements to the Theater/Dance Department.

The dance program has never had its own designated space, Grubel said. In April, construction will begin for a new dance studio, which will be ready for use this fall.

“With over 50 dance minors in the program this semester, our program has doubled over the last nine years,” Grubel said. “It was clear that more space was needed to accommodate classes and student rehearsal needs.”