by Max Marbut
Staff Writer
If you’ve been enjoying the pedestrian experience along the 100 block of East Bay Street and happened to look up at the second-floor windows, you may have thought your eyes must be playing tricks on you. If you thought you saw a group of young people in dance attire draped in the windows, it wasn’t your eyes deceiving you, it was the “Fierce Dance Theater.”
The experimental dance company is led by Mayra Fernandez, who earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in dance at Jacksonville University and is now an instructor at LaVilla School of the Arts and Douglas Anderson School of the Arts, the public arts magnet middle and high schools, respectively.
She said the group was formed because the dancers — who are enrolled at several area dance studios in addition to their magnet school training — needed more opportunities to work on their craft than they could get at school or with private instruction. Fierce Dance Theater is not a dance class, it’s a budding performing arts company.
“These kids are just addicted to dance,” said Fernandez. “They can’t get enough of it.”
She said the group focuses on choreography in the styles of modern dance, jazz and contemporary ballet.
“We also do some Latin styles and hip-hop for fun,” she said. “We work on extreme flexibility. It’s a very athletic form.”
Having a studio space Downtown not only provides entertainment for passers-by, it also gives the dancers a taste of what it’s like to rehearse in a big-city environment, said Fernandez.
“When we look out the windows, we see the buildings and the bridges and the traffic on the street below. It’s a much more creative atmosphere than if we rehearsed somewhere in the suburbs,” said Fernandez.
The dancers’ short-term goal is to choreograph and perform routines that will be videotaped and then posted on the Internet for the world to see. Fernandez said the group has been asked to perform at events sponsored by The Jay Fund, former Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Tom Coughlin’s not-for-profit organization, and other showcases like the “Art of Love” series coordinated by James Jenkins, who performs with the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra.
Being an experimental dance company, Fernandez and her charges are always on the lookout for unique creative opportunities that can include dance. And, there’s no lack of confidence among the dancers.
“We’re really into collaboration. We’d like to work with musicians like drummers who can jam while we improvise dance,” she said.
You won’t see the dancers in the windows for the next few weeks. They’re going to be taking some time off while the director is out of town. Fernandez accepted a fellowship at Bates College and has joined an international group of choreographers and performers for three weeks in Lewiston, Maine during the college’s 25th annual Dance Festival.
Fernandez said while it’s an honor to be invited to participate in the summer dance program in Maine, she’s looking forward to getting back home so she and the members of Fierce Dance Theater can resume adding some arts and cultural flavor to Bay Street Town Center.
“We’re trying to get a little ‘New York’ happening here in Jacksonville,” she said.