Elaine Miller started dancing when she was four, fell in love with it and never quit. She was a classical ballet "bun-head" in high school, dancing at the pre-professional company Charlotte City Ballet Company and training mostly in classical ballet. At USC, she found a good balance between ballet and contemporary through her dance major. And now she is a fourth-year dance and economics student about to finish her last contemporary showcase with the dance program.
Miller will be in three of the five pieces being performed at USC Theatre and Dance's Spring Contemporary Concert, which runs Feb. 21-24 at Drayton Hall Theatre. She describes each as "thought-provoking in their own way." The first one is set by guest choreographer Shaun Boyle called "Honor and Ash." The piece is inspired by acts of violence, originally created by Boyle and the University of Utah dance program — but was altered with the original movements created by the USC dance students.
"It's really cool that she takes these intangible concepts and puts them into the form of movement," Miller said.
Another piece she'll be performing in is "Black Gazing," choreographed by associate professor Thaddeus Davis. Miller describes it as a beautiful piece to the music of Nina Simone. The dancers researched Simone and her contributions to the civil rights movement.
"We did a lot of studying ... how to look at her music as more than just love songs and to kind of hear the beauty and pain of her voice and turn that into movement," she said.
The last piece Miller is performing in is titled "Unbroken" and is choreographed by Stephanie Wilkins and explores the process of recovering from an injury — inspired by an injury recovery the choreographer underwent herself.
"Not everyone has experienced coming back from an injury, but everyone has experienced coming back from setbacks," Miller said. "So that's kinda how a lot of us related to that piece, and I think everyone in the audience will be able to."
For Wilkins, the emotional side of the injury was more difficult to undergo than the physical side.
"Luckily, I've come through it and I'm seeing the light at the end of the tunnel," Wilkins said, "And that's how the piece progresses — is basically through this journey that I've been on."
Wilkins explained how she never really worked with Miller throughout her years at USC, but she stood out to her in the audition and has been wonderful with the piece. She describes Miller as "largely a ballet dancer," but still let Wilkins "graciously push her" because her piece is filled with contemporary movement and emotion.
The other pieces that will be showcased in the concert include the still untitled piece by Tanya Wideman-Davis as well as a piece by Olivia Waldrop, a new hire to the dance program.
Wideman-Davis' piece is set to Prince's music and, according to artistic director Susan Anderson, is "cutting-edge" and "fun" featuring jazzy, '80s-style choreography. Waldrop's piece is about the clothes that women wear, following the theme of social issues that many of the pieces in the program feature.
Anderson has had many opportunities to choreograph with Miller — including works like "The Firebird" as well as a piece for the American College Dance Festival that is next week. She'll be performing Anderson's choreography of Tarantella.
Miller sees the process of graduating and moving into the professional world as "bittersweet." Through the dance program, she's received incredible opportunities such as working with guest artists as well as becoming like family with her fellow dancers.
"I feel that they've prepared us to pursue a career in dance — or a career in anything really — because you develop the skills needed by studying dance," Miller said.
And her choreographer agrees. Wilkins believes that dancers are very disciplined people. She feels that her role as a dance teacher and a choreographer is to continue the discipline they learn early on in dance and to push them out of their comfort zones creatively.
"They can do whatever they want to do: doctors, lawyers, military — whatever they choose to do," Wilkins said, "because they are very disciplined."
Seeing dancers like Miller grow through their college experience to graduate after seeing them every day for four years breaks Anderson's heart, but she knows her students have a lot ahead of them.
"It's always good to know that we're sending them off better than when they came in — better equipped physically, mentally, spiritually, artistically," Anderson said. "And with that we hope that they pursue their dreams."
Miller is currently in the process of auditioning for professional companies, the next step in her journey through dance.
"You know students choose to major in dance because dance is such a passion in their life," Anderson said. "It's like a nutrient. They can't live without it."