The Winter Dance Concert will run from Thursday, Feb. 27 to Saturday, Feb. 29 in the Emerson Black Box Theater.

The dance auditions for the show began in November 2019. Because the winter concert and spring concert run at the same time, the dancers work through their remaining time in the fall semester and take winter break off.

“Each of the choreographers has a minimum requirement of three hours a week with their cast,” associate professor Tricia Zweier said. “There are 13 choreographers, so they put in a lot of hours.”

The choreographers also work independently within those three hours to prepare and build material before the show and rehearsals.

Zweier said some songs in the concert carry a story with them.

“There will be a story about social injustices in some capacities,” Zweier said. “There are also pieces that are just meant to entertain and that’s an important part of the production too.”

Amy Gammon, the director of the show, said that there will be story plots that will stick out and there’s a couple that have very strong messages. Gammon said that she wants to keep these strong messages a secret so the audience can try to figure them out when they watch the concert in person.

The dancers and choreographers will be practicing up until right before the first curtain call.

“We have been here almost every single night working on rehearsals,” Gammon said. “It’s a big process, but it’s worth it and each dance gets three hours of rehearsal each week.”