By Shannon Neu, Staff Writer

Published in print Feb. 4, 2015

Since she was only two years old, Camilla Smigo has been dancing. She has since become a dedicated senior in the dance department with a wide variety of stylistic interests and a passion for choreography. She is the current president of Prime Movers, a student organization within the dance department.

Camilla realized she wanted to pursue a career in dance after taking a break from it for a year. “I got into teaching it at a studio,” she says, “and that’s when I realized that I needed it my life and that’s what I wanted to do.” She is interested in teaching dance during the beginning of her career. Her love lies in choreography, however, and she aspires to open her own dance company one day.

She mentioned that while prima ballerinas are wonderful to watch and give her something to work towards, she finds inspiration from dance professionals who are more relatable. Some of her influences include her mother, who Camilla has trained with her entire life, and her instructors at UNCG. She also cites her teacher from the community college she attended prior to joining the UNCG community as a significant influence. “The dance director there really pushed me and I don’t think I’d be in the same place without her right now,” Camilla says.

“Some days it can be really hard and really un-inspirational, because you just feel like you’re really struggling,” Camilla mentions, discussing finding how she finds inspiration through dance. “Other days it can just be the music that you’re using, movement that just feels really authentic… it could be watching other people dance, whether in class or in performance, and even watching teachers. It depends on the day.”

For individuals considering becoming dance majors, Camilla provides some words of advice: “It can be really challenging and taxing because on top of your classes you have rehearsals in the evenings for different people, performances on weekends, so it’s hard to have a job a lot of times. It’s hard to balance everything out.” She suggests that people should be sure it’s their passion and that they’re up to the challenge. “Otherwise, I think if somebody wants to try it then they should.”

A previous project she has worked on includes a schizophrenia-inspired piece that involved 13 dancers. “We had an audition in October,” Camilla explains, reflecting on her experience. “I felt honored to be able to have my dance get past that point. It was impartial judges that had to look at each piece objectively. They didn’t know who had choreographed anything. They just had a list of everything and had to decide from there. We had 23 pieces that auditioned and only 15 made it.”

Another past project includes a puppet-inspired piece, which portrayed the puppets taking over their master.

“I’ve always done pieces that tend to dwell on the darker side of things,” explains Camilla.

“I’ve been wanting to do a blindfolded piece for over a year and a half,” she reveals. Now, her inspired image is becoming a reality. Curious about what would what happen if she took away dancers’ eyesight, which they rely so heavily on, Camilla is creating a blindfolded work with 10 dancers for her senior capstone project.

“I like control and I like things to be very clean, and when you add the blindfold you get this lack of control and a mess,” Camilla says while describing her experience with the blindfolded piece thus far. “So I’m trying to figure out how to work past the challenge of that and get a result that I like.”

“I like to do darker pieces, even if they’re not specifically personal,” she adds. Elaborating how her current project is slightly out of her element, Camilla says, “A challenge is good. Something different is what I need to kind of end my college career with.”

Those interested in seeing Camilla’s blindfolded dance piece, as well as other projects by seniors in the dance department, may attend the B.F.A. Thesis Concert. It will be performed on April 24, 2015 at 8:00 p.m. and April 25, 2015 at 2:00 pm and 8:00 p.m. Tickets are $12 for general admission, $9 for seniors and children, $9 for non-UNCG students and $6 for UNCG students.

Tickets can be purchased in person at the Dance Box Office or online at http://purchase.tickets.com/buy/TicketPurchase?orgid=24297&group_id=546978&schedule=list.