To film a documentary and to be a dancer require, in many ways, a similar skillset. Both need an eye for beauty, a love for your craft and a persistence to complete a project.

Those talents are what will be on display in Rosa Lin Alcoser’s senior seminar. It is a short, 10-minute documentary titled, “Clogging in the Ozarks Folk Dance Alive.”

Its focus is clogging. The dance form is, according to Alcoser, “an American folk dance that is still alive and evolving, and it is alive and evolving right here in the Ozarks.”

What is clogging?

But what is clogging, specifically? Alcoser said that it is similar to tap, but really, “It… has the feel of Irish hard shoe. When you break it down to its origination it is like a fusion of… English, Irish, Scottish and German all fused into one step dance that is super easy to do and anyone can pick up.”

Generally, a senior seminar in the communications department is an event to support a charitable group. But Alcoser wanted to do something different.

“I really love information. So that’s the beauty of a documentary film.”

The young filmmaker wanted to dive into a format that would combine her love of dance, information and film.

When Alcoser set out to make a documentary, she was worried about where to begin.

“[A classmate] told me I was crazy. He made a very good point: A documentary is like 20 minutes. Everything I’ve ever made is like, a minute and a half, five minutes. So I ended up in Shipman’s office asking him, ‘How do I make a documentary?’ And he just stopped editing for a second, turned, looked at me and said, ‘Well, Rosa, a documentary is basically a really long feature.’ And went back to editing,” said Alcoser.

Alcoser began calling dance studios all over the area and started shooting where they gave her permission.

“It’s been a lot of traveling. But that’s why you make a documentary. You can go and see what people are doing and get to know a little bit about something,” said Alcoser.

After her hours and hours of driving, Alcoser’s vision is finally complete. The film will be screened at Lay Auditorium on Nov. 9 at 6:30 p.m.

“It’ll be a 20 to 30 minute event depending on how long I babble beforehand,” she said.

Additionally, it will be uploaded to Alcoser’s personal YouTube page, RosaLin Alcoser that same night. To support an up and coming filmmaker, attend the event or watch her film tonight!

Article by Jacob Maher.