Fusing story and dance

It was another rehearsal day at the Huntington Beach Academy for the Performing Arts, and Marie Hoffman was ready to rock and roll.

The dance department’s Repertory Ensemble had one week before its first big show of the year, “Fusion 2010,” was set to open, and a dozen-odd teenage dancers went through a routine set to the Meat Loaf classic “Paradise by the Dashboard Light.” The multi-part song switched back and forth from loud to soft, tender to intense — and so did the teacher, as Hoffman cajoled, praised and sometimes tongue-lashed her students to get their act together.

“I need to see my story! I need to see faces,” she proclaimed, urging the performers to show more emotion. A moment later, when two dancers began chatting out of turn, she snapped, “Don’t speak! God, I thought being in the arts was supposed to make you smarter.”

The troupe started again, and Hoffman began excitedly talking with academy Director Diane Makas about a student who was showing promise. Then she spotted something that displeased her, and she flopped her body across the floorboards in mock agony. Within seconds, she was smiling again, sitting cross-legged and shimmying to the music.

Hoffman, a former member of the Jan Van Dyke Dance Group in North Carolina and an instructor at the academy for seven years, is not timid about expressing her feelings. But her students, who seek careers in dance, don’t object to her bluntness.

“I’m glad she’s tough, because we all end up looking good,” said Erica Bresnan, 16, who is in her third year at the academy.

“She trying to simulate real life,” added senior Mark Brown, 17. “So it’s pretty reasonable.”

An eclectic program

“Fusion,” which the academy has put on every winter for the last 12 years, brings together all the dance department’s ensembles — Jazz, Ballet, Modern, Tap and Repertory, which is the touring troupe and the one that rehearses longest and hardest. It’s also the one Hoffman oversees, and she does what she can to groom young professionals.

“I push them, for sure,” she said. “But that’s the nature of this ensemble. These are not kids who are pursuing dance as a hobby or extracurricular activity.”

Since September, the Repertory Ensemble has been rehearsing six to eight hours a week for “Fusion”; the other ensembles, taught by Hoffman, Makas, Andrea Taylor and Christy Hernandez, rehearse an average of four. The troupe recently performed in Scotland and South Africa, and Hoffman plans to bring it to Prague later this year.

When the curtain rises Friday for the first “Fusion” show, though, the entire dance department will have its talent on display. The 75 dancers will put on a dozen numbers, some choreographed by faculty members and others by guest choreographers. And students will have another incentive to dance their best this year; for the first time Saturday, Hoffman has invited about 20 college recruiters to watch the show.

“Fusion” is the first of two annual shows the academy puts on; the other, “Synergy,” takes place in the spring. Both shows, true to their names, run a gamut of styles. This weekend’s production, in addition to the Meat Loaf piece, contains a number with students dressed as ghosts and another, set to a Sinéad O’Connor song, in which two troubled romantic couples engage in a metaphorical game of football.

A history of achievers

The Academy for the Performing Arts, a magnet school of the Huntington Beach Union High School District that opened in 1993, trains students in all aspects of putting on a production. While the dance majors have rehearsed for “Fusion,” technical theater majors have sewn costumes from scratch, fitting each dancer individually. The show’s crew, from lighting technicians to stage managers, consists almost entirely of students.

The school aims to send out graduates ready for show business, and its record speaks for itself. Alumni have gone on to dance for the Royal Ballet in London, perform in “Avenue Q” on Broadway and work technical jobs for Disney.

“We have a dual mission,” said Makas, who joined the faculty in 1996 and founded “Fusion.” “We prepare students to go directly into a career in the arts or go directly into university and be like an advanced student at the university level.”

The students share that compulsion to succeed.

Erica, a Fountain Valley resident, rehearses 20 or more hours a week and dances at a studio on the side. Sometimes, she feels like she spends more time at rehearsal than she does at home.

“I just like being here,” she said.

Hoffman doesn’t fret about her dancers’ abilities before opening night; she trusts them to have their moves down. If anything gives her butterflies, it’s hoping her proteges will have a big enough audience.

“They deserve it,” she said. “They just work so hard.”