Heather Glabe, 29, is a CSULB graduate student who is hoping to further develop as a dance artist and teacher. The UCSB alum has been dancing for 18 years, and attained her bachelor’s degree in dance, along with her bachelor’s degree in communication. Along with taking the necessary courses to attain her third degree, she is currently an assistant teacher in the beginning ballet class that the department offers to non-majors.
Glabe began dancing at a young age, and was always drawn to ballet. With that being said, Heather doesn’t hesitate to expand her dance vocabulary and challenge herself with something new.
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| Heather Glabe doing a posed modern dance movement with the dance company Dance Contiuum San Francisco. |
“Most of my focus when I was young was in ballet,” said Glabe. “I loved it, and took classes almost exclusively in ballet at a small studio in Irvine. I've also taken a few jazz classes, and performed jazz in High School, where I was also introduced to modern dance. I now consider modern dance to be my main focus, because it’s more open than ballet in terms of movement vocabulary. Still, my ballet training is important to me, and compliments my modern dance practice [since the two techniques go together]. I danced professionally as a modern dancer for several companies in San Francisco, and loved it.”
While Glabe is a veteran dancer who has vast knowledge in her field, what drew her to the field to begin with? Many choose dance as a hobby or something to do simply for fun, but for Heather, dance means much more.
“Dance was not easy for me to choose, but I figured out that I need to dance,” said Glabe. “If I don't dance, then I truly get depressed and it takes me a couple of weeks to realize the reason: I literally feel bad because I'm not dancing. Even though it’s a constant struggle, dance is an amazing art form. Dance is a physical practice, so it takes me out of my overactive head and allows me to feel life through my body. Overall, dance is fun, and it takes me to a place of pure joy.”
Now that we all know a little about Heather, we’ll be following the journey that she is embarking on for the remainder of her semester at CSULB as she completes her first of three years. The graduate students in the dance program participate in a show known as the MFA Dance Concert that takes place each semester, and this semester, Heather is performing. Not only are there only 10 graduate dance students total, but the concert is entirely choreographed and performed by them. This show is very important to everyone in the dance department, because it is truly the culmination of their efforts, and their time to display all of the hard work they’ve put in throughout the semester.
Glabe is excited and anxious to perform in the concert as a performer, and shared some information on the piece she’ll be taking part in.
“I'm performing in a piece called The Art of Breathing choreographed by Jessica Kondrath,” said Glabe. “The piece is nearly finished with only about a minute left to go. At this point in the process, we are going back to the earlier material and playing with it to see how various options and arrangements affect the piece. We rehearse three times a week for about two hours at a time, and usually we rehearse in studios but last night we rehearsed onstage so that we can get a sense of how to space ourselves.”
While there is a lot of hard work and dedication she’s mustering up for this performance, she’s determined to make it a great one. Stay tuned to follow Heather’s progress, face her challenges, and get to know the CSULB dancer more in depth.
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This video, titled "3 Girl Glitch-Hop Dance," was a performance Heather did with her company Vispo that she founded a few years back.
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