These Gonzaga dancers have just 60 seconds to wow audiences on stage: 60x60 celebrates fifth year at university

In some ways, 60 seconds can feel like a lifetime. Sixty seconds waiting for a red light to change, for example, or the final minute before the start of a race.

But when you only have 60 seconds to say everything you want to say, to express everything you want to express, it can feel like it’s over in the blink of an eye.

It might sound difficult to imagine, but 60 stories will be told during 60x60, which finds Gonzaga University students performing 60 dance works, all of them just one minute long.

The fifth annual 60x60 will be held Friday at the Myrtle Woldson Performing Arts Center. The event features 25 to 30 dancers performing 60 pieces that were choreographed by students, faculty and alum. Each 60-second piece of music was also created by a student or faculty member.

The 60x60 event began in 2019 after Suzanne Ostersmith, associate professor of theater and dance, dance program director, interdisciplinary arts director and theater and dance department co-chair, realized Gonzaga dance students were itching for more performance opportunities during the school year.

Traditional performances require lengthy rehearsals to learn choreography and figure out technical elements, which makes squeezing another one into a packed performance calendar difficult.

But something with low stakes which requires low preparation, like 60x60, Ostersmith realized, could be just the thing the students were after.

Cynthia Gutierrez, assistant professor of theater and dance and the event’s faculty adviser, agrees. The specific parameters of each dance being one minute long and choreographed to a piece of music from a predetermined catalog, she said, can make it easier for choreographers to be creative and less scary for performers.

“It helps us to make it less precious,” she said. “Sometimes it can feel like that, like, ‘What am I going to make this dance about? I want it to be good, and I want to use all these things that I’ve been learning.’ There can be some pressure, so reminding them that making dance can be fun, making dance can be easy and fast.”

At 60x60, things will be moving just as quickly backstage as they are onstage, with many dancers appearing in multiple pieces. The 60-second time limit includes entering and exiting the stage, which leaves little room for error in setting up each piece. But the student-run production team has ensured that no dancer is in two pieces back to back, so there will be a little time for dancers to catch their breath before returning to the stage.

Also helping to streamline the evening is the call for outfits to be all black, so no costume changes are required for dancers appearing in multiple pieces.

In a variety of ways, 60x60 feels inclusive to Gutierrez. Aside from the shorter rehearsal times allowing more students to participate, the event showcases a variety of dance styles and music genres.

The event is accessible to all Gonzaga students, not just dance majors or minors, who are welcome to audition for 60x60 no matter their level of dance experience.

“We really get a chance to extend our net, so to speak, of what we can do in our dance program,” she said.

Thinking from an audience member’s perspective, Gutierrez said 60x60 is a nice introduction to dance, because of its brevity. Dance works from professional companies can sometimes be 20 or 30 minutes long. These pieces can feel even longer if you’re new to dance or don’t quite understand how to watch a performance. With 60x60, she joked, if you don’t like one piece, it will be over in a minute.

“It’s an appetizer for them to come back for more, if they want to see longer works,” she said.

There are plenty of opportunities to see longer works from Gonzaga dance this season, including two student choreography showcases in December and April, a musical theater dance revue in January, the fifth annual Celebrate EveryBODY Screendance Film Festival in February, and the annual spring dance concert in April, which will celebrate 25 years of Gonzaga dance.

In a medium that can feel very exclusive, with an inner circle that’s dependent on how much you know, Gutierrez said an event like 60x60 opens the world of dance to those both on and off stage.

There are many roles dance can play, she said, but if it’s only being presented when in its most pristine form, then that world remains closed to dancers and audience members. There is something to be said about performing a lengthy piece after months of rehearsal as well as performing a minute-long piece after a week or two of practice.

“We want to have both kinds of experiences for our students, majors or minors or not,” Gutierrez said. “I think anytime you can get a nondancer on stage and enjoying themselves, having fun, I count it as we just won ourselves another audience member. They’re going to go off in their engineering career, whatever it is, and they might have a soft spot in their heart for dance. They might go buy a ticket, buy season tickets or be a teacher.

“It’s really about cultivation of the whole community, not just the people on the stage.”