By Lauren Zazzara
Features Assignment Editor
Start stretching and working on your moves, because the Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts is having a dance party on Tuesday, Feb. 24 at 8 p.m.
The party is part of a week-long celebration of The Quick Center’s 20th anniversary. The building was completed in Jan. 1995.
The celebration features a senior piano recital by Griffin Kramer on Saturday, Feb. 21 at 2 p.m., a fundraising gala called “I Could Have Danced All Night” on Friday, Feb. 27 and an anniversary concert featuring the SBU Concert Band, Concert Choir and SBU Theater on Sunday, Mar. 1 at 2 p.m., Ludwig Brunner, executive director of the Quick Center, said.
The dance party will take place in The Loft, with more low-key activities in different galleries.
“One of the big draws is we’re actually going to have the hip-hop team and the step team performing in the beginning and the middle of the dance party,” Sean Conklin, assistant curator of the Quick Center and the emcee for the party, said. “And then they will actually do a head-to-head dance battle where they will improvise dance based on songs that the deejay will play for them.”
The deejays, all students, will be spinning some original music, Conklin said.
In the galleries, there will be food and performances by Chattertons Slam Poetry Society and Bonacoustics. Bonacoustics will be performing some ‘90s medleys in honor of when The Quick Center opened, Conklin said.
“The feel that we want to give is kind of this interactive, lively club-like feeling in the atrium and then you can almost be removed from that when you go into the galleries,” Conklin said.
Tickets are free, but they will be first come first serve, and they will only be available from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. today at the Quick Center box office.
“If you don’t have a ticket you’re not getting in,” Conklin said. “It’s a very VIP-access scenario.”
The party will start even before students get inside the Quick Center.
“The arrival line will be similar to any red carpet arrival line you would see, for example, at the Grammys or Emmys. People will show up, be let in only if they have a ticket and then walk the carpet where our photographers will be taking pictures,” said Conklin. “We also have a wall composed of the logos of all the groups who have volunteered to be a part of the event.”
There will be some additional surprises at the event, Conklin said.
The Quick Center staff is hoping that students will enjoy the art as well.
“We would really love to have students not only to come to dance but come back and actually visit the galleries,” Brunner said.
Be sure to get your tickets for this special event to experience performances by several Bonaventure clubs and for a night of dancing and art.
“We are really excited to show off our moves,” sophomore biology major and hip-hop team member Nisha Patel said. “It’ll be a lot of fun seeing the hip-hop team, the step team ad ASIA all together dancing and having a great time.”
