Angie Wilhelm / For The Post / aw319306@ohiou.edu

Dancers from the School of Dance rehearse a jazz number on Tuessday at Putnam Hall. The dance will be performed during the Senior Dance Concert on Friday.

The curtain is about to fall on this year’s senior dance majors, but they are performing one last time at Ohio University — and this time, they are doing it their way.

The spring Senior Dance Concert, which is organized and choreographed solely by the seniors, opens tonight at Putnam Hall. The concert is comprised of seven group pieces and four solos set to a wide range of music.

“We have pieces set to Queen, Marvin Gaye and Jimi Hendrix as well as some original compositions specifically for the concert. So it ranges not only in music style but also in dance styles as well,” said Summer Ogg, a senior dance major.

Ogg’s piece, “Ooo Ooo Oo” is based off of disco and flashy, over-the-top jazz.

“I went through and rented all of the terrible, terrible 70’s movies like Saturday Night Fever, so a lot of my movement is from that time period,” Ogg said.

The concert also features a Rockette-inspired piece by Kristen Gerding, a senior dance major, which focuses on voluptuous long legs and sharp, precise movement.

“I danced with the Radio City Rockettes for a few summers and I have always been really interested in doing that genre of jazz,” Gerding said.

The pieces range from poppy jazz all the way to the melodramatic modern, but such a wide spectrum really defines the senior class, Ogg said.

“We have a different kind of class and we all didn’t fall strictly into modern movement,” she said. “But the well-roundedness of the concert makes it the perfect one for anyone who hasn’t seen much dance before.”

To Gerding, the concert is more than just a showcase of what she has learned — it is a chance for her to say goodbye.“It’s sad because (the seniors) have been in class together for four years now, and we are definitely a family,” she said. “It’s hard to know this is the last time I can perform with them.”

Ogg agreed, saying it would definitely be hard to move on from OU.

“I haven’t thought about (leaving); I refuse to,” she said. “When we are all sitting on the couch together watching TV together I am like, ‘Nope, this is how it’s always going to be,’” Ogg said.

Dance faculty members have noticed how tight-knit the group is, as well.

“This group really does know how to work together and they stick together,” said John Bohuslawsky, technical director for the School of Dance.

Bohuslawsky has also noticed that the group is more than performers.

“Just about all of them can do all of the aspects involved, and they often jump in and do production stuff,” he said.Regardless of whether it is the producing or dancing, Ogg says she has learned a lot during her four years.

“We have taken what we want to out of this education, done what we want with it, and now we are presenting the work that we want to make,” she said.