Former 'Rette choreographs personal story of cancer survival

Attendees at Kilgore College's annual Spring Dance Concert, set for 8 p.m. Friday, May 4, in the Van Cliburn Auditorium, will capture a glimpse into the life of Brazie Adamez - a former Rangerette who uses choreography as therapy to deal with life's challenges.

Brazie, a Kilgore native from the deep-rooted Mata family, has experienced more than her share of challenges over the past several months. She and husband Andy, also of Kilgore, were told the words a parent never wants to hear last August. Their one-year-old son, Drew Adamez Jr., had a malignant tumor located in the back of his head.

"There were a lot of different emotions when we found out," Brazie said. "It was tough but we tried to stay positive. There were a lot of hospital visits. On one particular, my husband was staying with Drew and the Texas Longhorn football team came in to visit patients. He enjoyed that more than our son but things like that helped keep up going by taking our minds off things."

When Brazie choreographs, she feels like the dancers - and she as well - can use the routines for therapy.

She has sectioned her dance for the concert into three stages, all reflecting the trials she and her family went through. The first deals with discovering the cancer and early stages of grief. Stage two deals with the tumor and its growth. The third reflects on chemotherapy and dealing with Drew Jr.'s hair loss.

"The third piece's song is about Sampson and the strength that comes through his hair," Brazie said. "When he loses his hair his strength is gone, so the correlation is with the chemo breaking down the cancer while it breaks down your strength."

Her choreography began with Brazie expressing what she was going through but always came back to Drew Jr. - who is now cancer free - and the other patients they all met along the way.

"I reference about three or four other childhood cancer survivors in the piece," she said. "In the end, this is to celebrate them and their courage."

Brazie's routine will be just one of a broad range of artistic skills and talent on display as the college's Dance department presents its annual show

The performance, a collaboration of all the students and instructors involved with the KC Dance Department, is headed up by dance instructor Cathy Beckman.

"Dances in this year's concert represent what is taught at KC - ballet, tap, jazz and modern dance. This gives the more than 80 students in the performance a chance to experience all aspects of producing a dance concert while showing their skills as dancers and their creativity as choreographers."

All KC dance courses transfer to four-year college dance departments.

Musical variety for ballet will include Debussy, Massenet and a dance done on-point to jazz. Modern dance will incorporate contemporary artists, including Pink Floyd and Tori Amos. One featured dance in this year's concert was performed in February at the American College Dance Festival hosted by Texas Christian University.

Tickets go on sale at 7 p.m. Friday, one hour before the performance, in the Van Cliburn Auditorium ticket booth. They cost $10, $5 for students with a KC I.D. For more information, call Beckman at (903) 983- 8633.