As a freshman in the Dance Department, I was very lucky to be able to perform in 3 different shows throughout the year.
On the 2nd day of school in August, we were able to audition for repertory pieces to be in faculty works for the faculty concert. On top of the faculty casting students for their works, MFA students that are in the dance department were also casting for their works at this audition.
I was lucky enough to be cast in Crystal Michelle Perkins re-staging of her work "Difficulties of Flying". This was her first official year as Assistant Professor in the dance department. I was so fortunate to be apart of this cast. It gave me the opportunity to be able to work with some upperclassman more closely and also work with Crystal very closely. This piece pushed me in so many ways and I would not have wanted anything different for my first semester of Freshman year. We performed this piece in Faculty concert from November 30-December 2, 2017 for 4 performances.
During the audition at the beginning of the year, I was also lucky enough to be cast in Lexi Stilianos' work for her MFA Final Thesis Project. This piece was a culmination of everything she had learned and done during her time in the MFA program at Ohio State. The piece was entitled "Unbound, We Howl". The piece was a really cool experience for me and pushed me so much, not just as a dancer but as a person. I learned about what it is like to be oppressed as a woman and how we have to do something if we want it to change. I got to work with so many badass women in this project and it was the best experience. This piece was performed in Senior Concert from February 22-24, 2018 for 4 performances as well.
When working with Crystal and Lexi for their pieces, I got to meet upperclassman throughout that process. Ali Cassidy asked me to be in her piece that she was going to adjudicate for Winter Concert. We worked on a piece about Domestic Violence and adjudicated it for Winter Concert. Unfortunately it did not get chosen for Winter Concert but she received feedback for it and we went back to the studio to work and adjudicate again for Spring Concert. Fortunately, we got chosen for Spring Concert. We changed the piece to be much more personal for each of the dancers, which in turn helped the audience relate more to what we were going through. The piece was about our own personal struggles that we were going through. The piece was entitled "Push Through" and we performed the work at Spring Concert from April 5-7, 2018 for 4 performances as well.
As a freshman, I was so lucky to be able to perform in 3 very different works in 3 different concerts. I learned so much from each of the experiences and am so thankful.
Lemme know what you think.
With Joy, Kendall
