On Dec 31st 2024, I had just gotten back home for about a week from my sophomore fall semester. I was sitting at my desk, responding to an email titled “Be in my dance lab piece?” It was from Jenna, a prospective dance major from my class year. I first knew Jenna as a dancer when we took Modern Dance II together in our freshman fall. Later, thanks to the wide variety of opportunities offered by the dance department for students to stage their work, I knew her better as a talented tap dancer and choreographer. I was really impressed with her solo piece at the Dance Lab Showcase and Three Minutes Max—both are intimate informal showing opportunities featuring students’ original works. Dance Lab Showcase is for students taking choreography classes to show their coursework, and Three Minutes Max is for any student interested in staging their original pieces under three minutes. I had been hoping to be in Jenna’s piece, and then came the opportunity! While the invitation did excite me, I was a little hesitant to say yes. I had no prior experience in jazz at all and always considered myself a ballet and contemporary person. But maybe, I thought to myself, working with peers is a good way to try out something new?
Our rehearsals started from the first week of class. The nine of us, eight dancers and one choreographer, met for one to two hours every Friday morning. Jenna would always come into the rehearsal with well-developed plans. As the piece gradually took shape, I came to realize how collaborative the process was. Memorizing jazz movements was a bit challenging to me at first because of their fast pace and simply that it was a new language to my body. Unlike ballet, which I do not easily forget once I have a sequence of movements in my body, jazz demands more time and practice. But my fellow dancers were extremely patient with their help. More importantly, while the choreography was playful and lively, bearing a strong imprint of Jenna’s personal characters, she managed to leverage everyone’s strengths so well! The vision of the piece was uniquely Jenna’s, but each dancer’s individual brilliance shined through.
Throughout the semester, Jenna shared our rehearsal videos with her dance lab classmates and professor and passed the feedback back to us. Halfway through the semester we had a sketch of the entire piece. Dance lab students have their own showcase, but they can apply to have their pieces featured in the Dance Concert if they feel confident and ready. Coming back from spring break, we were told that our piece, along with two other dance lab pieces, got approved to be on the main stage! The Dance Concert is a more formal opportunity, usually staging faculty-led ensembles and students’ senior projects. Having dance lab pieces shown on the Dance Concert further diversifies the dance styles on stage. For student dancers and choreographers like us, it means that we get to meet a much bigger audience! The Dance Concert at the end of every semester is well-liked by the entire campus community.
Our performance was a big success. From friends within and outside the dance community and even my professors, I received the same comment—they never knew I could dance in such a way. “I didn’t know either!” I said. My experience working with student choreographers has always been exciting explorations that lead to the discovery of my potentials I would never achieve just by myself.
