Q&A with Amanda Szeglowski of NYC’s cakeface dance company, performing at the Florida Dance Festival June 17

The annual Florida Dance Festival returns to USF June 16–26 with workshops and master classes by some of the world’s leading dance professionals. In addition to classes, the Festival will host evening dance performances in the USF School of Theater and Dance auditoriums by the Arch Dance Company, Fuzión Dance Artists, David Dorfmann Dance, and a spattering of Florida Dance Association members including a New York City company with a most unusual name:

cakeface.

Founded by a graduate of Blake High School‘s first performing arts class and USF alumna Amanda Szeglowski, cakeface sports more than an unusual name. Mixing an eclectic staff with more eclectic ideas, the company boasts a repertoire of performance art/dance/sound and video design/visual art pieces, and isn’t afraid to try something new for fear of it being misunderstood.

Szeglowski talked to CL about her Florida roots, her New York aspirations, and the importance of her early arts education.

CL: You were in Blake’s first graduating dance class. What did it mean to you to be able to help shape that program, and how did that influence your later decision to be an entrepreneur?

This article appears in Jun 10-16, 2010.