“Play the Floor,” a Mesa College Dance Company production, premiers Nov. 1 at Horton Plaza’s 545-seat Lyceum Theatre.

“We’d love to be here on campus,” Jan Ellis, Director and Assistant Chair of Physical Education, lamented, ” but we don’t have enough seats.”

The 250-person Apolliad Theatre at Mesa College is “just too small to be effective.” Before finding the Lyceum Theatre 10 years ago, productions would regularly sell out.

“It’s very difficult to find a space to rent in San Diego,” Ellis explained. Most venues are too big, too expensive or booked. As such, show times are based on when the theater is available.

The fall production is much earlier this semester stated Raul Gomez, dance major and performer in “Play the Floor.”

“We usually don’t use our stuff until mid to late November,” he continued.

The show combines hip-hop, jazz, modern, ballet, tap and theater pieces.

“Each choreographer comes with their own idea,” said Ellis.

Preparations for “Play the Floor” started at the beginning of the fall semester.

Students train from early afternoons to late evening Monday through Thursday and most daylight hours on Fridays.

In addition to student performers and choreographers, students from Dance Production choose from many positions. These include costume design, lighting effects and management.

If a student wants to learn a specific skill concerning performance or production explained Ellis, “we will invest that time in you.”

The Mesa College Dance Company comprises faculty and students from two Mesa courses. Dance Performance and Dance Production.

Ellis, who holds a Bachelor of Arts in Dance from UC Irvine, is well known in the local dance community. She has choreographed shows and commercials for companies such as Anheuser-Busch.

Several of Ellis’s former students have become dance professionals, including Camilla Bradley, dance teacher at Civic Dance Arts Program of the San Diego Park and Recreation Department; Irving Resureccion, performer and instructor of dance in Europe; and Nathan Trice, artistic director and founder of nathantrice/Rituals in N.Y.

“A lot of us come here just to learn from Jan [Ellis] and Donna [Florney],” said Gomez.

Past shows such as “Nature of Life,” “Rhythm Soup” and “My Dance, My Space” were “very successful” according to the director.

“Play the Floor” starts at 7:30 p.m. on Nov. 1 and 2 and at 2:30 p.m. on Nov 2.

Tickets can be purchased for $10 presale by calling the box office Tuesday through Sunday from noon to 4 p.m. at 619-544-1000 or at the door for $12.

The thing she hears most after a show, claimed Ellis is, “‘I had no idea how good that was going to be.'”