EMILY COWLES
STAFF WRITER
This past weekend the Alma College Dance Company (ACDC) put on their student choreographed show. The show consisted of three performances, one Friday night and two on Saturday. This dance show even included previews to some of the senior dance majors’ final shows that will be performed this April.
The ACDC dancers bond through their dance experiences, even though many of the dancers are not dance majors. Each student created dance routines that they hoped would gain an emotional response from the audience.
“My piece is about life as a young woman, learning to love yourself through faith and friendship,” said Abbie Richardson (‘19).
“I am also performing in a piece that is an honorary tribute, an old love-story, and discovery of the weight of a human soul.”
Each of these dancers performed pieces based around different topics, be they personal, educational or political.
“My piece from this weekend’s concert will be part of my thesis dance showcase, on April 6th and 7th, where I will be choreographing [and] presenting an evening length dance concert,” said Shanell Ramos (‘19).
Ramos continued, “There will be various dance pieces such as Lyrical, Modern to Hip-Hop, Vogue, and even New Jersey Club dancing.”
Though there were few seniors choreographing for the concert, they all had memories to share from their years here to the performances this past weekend.
“Performing at Alma has been an amazing experience,” said Richardson. “All of the pieces created this year have beautiful stories behind them, and everyone will find something they can appreciate or relate to.”
Richardson wasn’t the only dancer who had something to say about watching their own work being performed. Allison Muenzer (‘20) shed some light what it is like to watch your creation.
“It is an amazing experience to watch an idea for a piece grow into a complete work of art,” said Muenzer.
Muenzer continued, “The process of conceptualizing a piece, choreographing movement, picking music, designing costumes, and setting it in a performance space is an exhilarating time that we are blessed to be able to do within the Alma College Dance Company.”
Each member of the Alma College Dance Company performed this weekend with the same nervousness that one would have on their first performance, as Kathryn Todd (‘20) explained while mentioning her hopes for the performances.
“We are a passionately encouraging and loving group and believe it or not we still get nervous to perform even after dancing for all of these years!” said Todd. “The moments we all share together as a company just before we go on stage are truly special.”
Each performance from the weekends concert was meant to showcase how united the dancers are, even with a piece created out of grief. Todd expressed that it only takes one step to become a part of the team and that anyone can do so.
“If I could offer up one piece of advice to anyone considering dance classes or dancing with the company it is absolutely to be brave and just do it. I am wired to believe that everyone can dance. We are all movers and movement as an art form is something everyone can absolutely be a part of,” said Todd.
