Kerri Lambert began her life’s journey in dance as an undergraduate at Brenau University in Gainesville, Ga. Lambert was a member of the Gainesville Ballet Company and worked as a ballet teacher and choreographer in her spare time.

As an OU Master’s of Fine Arts candidate, choreography is her passion, Lambert said.

“I love to dance and I love to teach, but what I really want to do is choreograph,” she said.

Lambert is one of nine School of Dance students to be chosen for the Young Choreographers Showcase — an annual opportunity for emerging talents to present original choreographic works.

This year’s program is at 8 p.m. today to Saturday and at 3 p.m. Sunday in the Reynolds Performing Arts Center.

The event is under the guidance of showcase coordinators and School of Dance faculty members Steve Brule and Holly Schmidt and School of Dance director Mary Margaret Holt.

“All of our students are interested in performing, of course, but developing an interest in choreography is really taking their experience in the arts to the next step,” Holt said.

Lambert’s contemporary ballet piece, “Translucent Cascade,” is part of her thesis research on the creative process of surrealist art.

“I’m adapting surrealist visual artists’ processes to choreography,” Lambert said. “It’s using dreamlike images and manipulating space and time, sort of in the way dreams are strange and trying to replicate that on the stage with movement.”

Modern dance performance senior Mario Romero, another student choreographers, said he drew his inspiration from the musical group The Books. Two of the band’s songs provide a folksy, acoustic vibe for Romero’s piece, “You May Never See Them Again,” he said.

Romero said his choreographic work provides modern, fluid performance strewn with classical ballet techniques.

“The first section of my piece is smoother and a lot less chaotic than the second section,” he said. “It all has a lot of arabesque lines and different classical elements to it with the upper body being in different positions.”

The showcase is a good opportunity for students to view original work created by their peers, Romero said.

“Our other programs are very classical and very structured,” he said. “I feel like this is freer, and we decide everything so it’s just kind of more current, in a way. For a younger audience, it will be a lot more appealing to watch.”

If you go
WHAT: School of Dance Young Choreographers Showcase
WHEN: 8 p.m. today through Saturday,
3 p.m. Sunday
WHERE: Reynolds Performing Arts Center
INFO: www.ou.edu/finearts/dance