After years following their teachers' pirouette sequences and petit allegro combinations, students at the Central Pennsylvania Dance Workshop are marking the other side of dance — their own choreography.

The annual Student Choreographers Showcase — a free performance at 7:30 p.m. tomorrow in the 101 S. Fraser St. studio — is an opportunity for workshop director Jill Brighton to watch from the audience as her students perform their own pieces.

"It's uniquely their own self expression," Brighton said. "They're really in charge of the whole process. They make the decision of style, find the music and then create the movement. It's not just me yelling at them in class — Tombé! Pas de bourrée!"

Jen Nigro (sophomore-English), who choreographed a piece to Janet Jackson's "Trust a Try," said, "To me dance is just another form of expression and choreography that allows you to express your emotions in your own way. When you do a piece without teachers, you have free reign over your own emotions and over how you want to express them.

"I heard ("Trust a Try") for the first time when the CD came out and I just knew I had to dance to it," she added. "It was also really important to me to choreograph the piece the way I envisioned it."

Student Showcase What: Student Choreographers Showcase at the Central Pennsylvania Dance Workshop Time: 7:30 p.m. Date: Tomorrow Place: 101 S. Fraser St.

Brighton said the idea for a student-choreographed performance came from her wanting students to "learn what it takes to rehearse something and get it ready for performance." And though the students were given teacher feedback on "use of space and movement," the final pieces are completely their own.

"I think it's neat that they have someplace to not just dance around the living room but to really perform for an audience," Brighton added. "I remember when I was younger I would always be dancing around the house and knocking things over, but now the students have someplace to really perform their choreography."

Sarah Boies (freshman-communications), who choreographed her modern solo to Tracy Chapman, said, "Choreographers have an empty space and can do anything they want with it. It's like when you're little and you get a new can of Play-Doh. (With dance) you can just create what you want and then it comes alive on stage. And you can look and say 'Wow! I made that. I created it!'

"Whatever I'm feeling," she added. "I can make that feeling come alive by expressing it through my body. It's an ecstatic fulfillment and hard to explain."

Courtney Silvestri (sophomore-accounting) and Jessica Crump (senior-rehabilitation services) chose Michael and Janet Jackson's "Scream" for their piece, which Silvestri describes as "jazz and hip-hop style" with parts that "look like an MTV video."

"Both of us choreographed the dance together," Silvestri said. "We worked really well together and pretty much would get together on the weekends for a few hours and experiment and throw steps together.

"I have been dancing since the age of four," she continued, "so I pretty much do not know life without dance. I love it so much because it is my escape. No matter what's going on in my life, I can always go to the studio and have it be me and the music."

Nigro added, "When you are a dancer at heart, you just have to do it. It's something you couldn't live without. I admit sometimes it's hard to juggle classes with dance, but somehow you figure it out.

"Working on the choreography (for this performance) was sometimes more frustrating than fun," she said, "but it's all worth it to see the final outcome."