Michèle Moss is directing her dancers in a tech run for their upcoming performance, Game Face, part of Mainstage Dance at the University of Calgary. In the University Theatre they make final tweaks in the choreography and adjust the lights and backdrops for the show. The dancers run through a segment and then take a rest. One laughs at the folds in her costume — high shorts, high socks and hair tied up underneath a sweatband. All the dancers have these high socks — red, yellow, purple, white, black and double striped — pulled up just below their knees.

In the theatre, the students continue to dance in their sporty costumes — the movement is jagged and fragmented — before stopping again for a lighting cue. Then they do a quick section as an ‘Italian run-through’ (meaning much faster than the normal speed, in theatre terms). Two dancers come out as though facing off in a sports match, and wave colourful kerchiefs to win over their opponent before another dancer, representing a referee, stops them.

Mainstage Dance is an annual showcase for the U of C program of dance, allowing students the opportunity to help shape a performance in partnership with professional choreographers. This year, 39 students will dance their way through four pieces directed by four choreographers — Davida Monk, Tania Alvarado, Jonathan Kane and Moss, who is also the artistic director.

According to dancers Margarita Kozhevnikova and Laura Reed, Game Face — a jazz-influenced performance — includes references to sports such as basketball, baseball, croquet, football and synchronized swimming. The piece considers the movements of professional athletes, but also some of the culture around competitive team sports.

“My research was my past. I was a jock,” says Reed. “It was fun to go back to the place that I started.” The other dancers use her as a reference in order to accurately mimic the movements of referees and athletes. Another form of research, notes fellow dancer Kozhevnikova, is watching videos on YouTube of athletes celebrating after they’ve scored goals. Most of the movement, however, comes from playing and improvising in class. “I think that sometimes when you have an idea, you’re holding it in your head — and if you try to get there exactly, it doesn’t work.”

Moss often uses imagery to define movements. She developed exercises in which dancers imagine they’re in a mud puddle, in water or having a water fight, and how movements would be affected by these situations. The idea for this piece developed from this exercise.

Game Face continues to evolve. Backdrops with images of stripes allude to Adidas track suits and striped referee outfits. Lightning designer Steve Isom came up with the lines and also proposed video stills, including one of a crowd. “I’m sure I would have never got there without him proposing that, and I’m not really sure how literal I want that to be, but we’ll go with it for a little while,” she says. Moss says she was nervous the costume choice would be taken too literally — her original thought was to stage the sports-influenced choreography with dancers costumed in cocktail dresses. “That’s for another time,” she says, laughing.