The Winter Dance concert happened at the J. Scheidegger Center for the Arts on Jan. 25-27.
Under the artistic direction of Amy Gammon, the concert included original ballet, jazz, and contemporary pieces by sophomore and junior choreographers.
“The concept of our piece is the mind of the dancer and a look at how we create in our brains. At first, it felt a bit strange since most of my experience choreographing was for children,” sophomore Chariel Melendez said. “After a while, the dance just came to life. The piece started with the music. I actually discovered it from a Rolling Stone article, but when I listened to it, I knew it would be an interesting concept for a dance.”
The Lindenwood University Dance Program, also known as LUDP, hosts concerts all around the year to highlight the pieces of student choreographers. However, this concert happens on a smaller scale compared to the Spring and Fall concerts, where the pieces presented are usually by upperclassmen and guest choreographers.
“One of the hardest parts of being a choreographer is choosing your dancers, we have such a great dance program and lots of brilliant dancers that is it hard to make a decision on who to cast,” sophomore Stasa Rackov said.
Besides creating the choreography, the student choreographers’ creative process included choosing the music, costumes, and dancers for their pieces to be performed at the Emerson Black Box Theatre.
“I loved choreographing for the Winter Concert. It was a wonderful and new experience especially since I had a co-choreographer with me, it made things way easier and less stressful,” Rackov said.
The students could choose to choreograph by themselves or have a co-choreographer by their side to create their pieces, which some of them chose to do.
“Amber Fialka, my co-choreographer, is absolutely amazing and loved how experimental our music was. Together, we came up with the concept,” Melendez said. “The style is a mesh of both of ours. During our rehearsals, we bounced off of each other’s ideas so easily. I would say the most challenging aspect was adapting some of the more ambitious ideas into something doable for our dancers.”
The choreographers for the concert were the following:
- Amber Fialka & Chariel Melendez
- Lauren head
- Hannah Hopkins
- Emma Maxey
- Kloey Monthei & Lexi Young
- Ava Peltier & Larisa Petro
- Lily Prescott & Stasa Rackov
- Myla-Ja`nai Price
- Ella Radke
- Hannah Shafer & Allena Wheeler
- Natalia Stuart
“Seeing the piece finalized is beyond what I could’ve dreamed for. The lights, staging, and costumes give the piece life that you just can’t see in a studio,” Melendez said.
The event happens every January and tickets can be purchased at the Lindenwood Box office.
