Isabelle Fitzgibbon

It is that time of year once more: the weekend where the December Dance Concert takes Pickard Theater by storm. Six fall semester classes—Making Dances in the Digital Age, Introduction to Hip Hop, Introduction to Modern Dance, Modern II: Repertory and Performance, Afro-Modern II: Techniques and Histories and Advanced Modern Dance present their pieces from December 5 through 7. The concert is the product of a semester of work by students and faculty alike.

Each class worked individually on their choreography, but all were involved in collaborative processes. This was echoed by Assistant Professor in Dance Lindsay Rapport, Assistant Professor in Dance Adanna Jones and Professor in the Creative Arts Aretha Aoki. In the Making Dance class, Aoki said she aimed to promote the key components of a collaborative piece.

“Advanced modern dance is a technique class,” Aoki said. “These students are learning movement techniques in both choreographed movement as well as improvisational techniques. The work is really about enabling them [to create] a container for the practice that we’ve been engaging in all throughout the semester.”

The series of performances notably includes a diversity of style and inspiration. For example, the Afro-Modern II: Techniques and Histories class drew from Ubuntu practices and philosophies in South Africa and the ondulation movements from the Haitian Yanvalou in its choreography. The performance by Introduction to Hip Hop drew inspiration from African diasporic practices.

“It’s important that students see that dance is a vast field and can be approached in many different ways,” Aoki said. “It’s a reflection of cultures and people and cultural values.”

Despite being the concert’s producer, Aoki ensured that decisions were collaborative. Students and professors created a performance with a range of skill levels, choreography styles and music genres. In Introduction to Hip Hop, pieces of student-created choreography were embedded into the final performance in line with the dance style’s practice.

“Africanist aesthetics are about Africanist practices,” Rapport said. “African diasporic practices are about the process as much as, if not more than the product. And that’s what I think education is.”

Jondall Norris ’25 initially entered Making Dance in the Digital Age to satisfy his Visual and Performance Arts requirement but quickly grew to appreciate the class.

“It’s been so nice to go in there every other morning and not have a lecture,” Norris said. “It’s really refreshing to go in and move and do a little yoga, do a little warm up, do a little dancing every morning…. It definitely feels good mentally and physically.”

The performance consisted of six pieces. It opened with “9 to 5” by Introduction to Modern Dance and was followed by “Within our souls, we flow like water (Aiyibobo!)” by Afro-Modern II: Techniques and Histories and “Suite Heart” by Modern II: Repertory and Performance. Between each number, house lights went on momentarily to allow the audience to digest each dance. “A way forward” by Making Dances in the Digital Age followed “Suite Heart,” and “A glacier moves inside each of us” by Advanced Modern Dance came next. The final number was by the Introduction to Hip Hop class with “we’re in this together.”

The show closed out with a number including all students. The show was complemented by costumes and props that highlight the themes tackled in each dance. In the case of Afro Modern II: Techniques and Histories, many pieces of iridescent fabric and flowing costumes were used to reinforce water references.

The final number invited the audience to be vocal in their appreciation, with dancers often inciting cheers from the audience while encouraging their classmates on stage. Towards the end of the number, students flooded the house and enveloped the audience into the experience.

“Even though we’re on the stage, the audience is invited to engage in a lot of ways that are to be discovered by you when you attend,” Rapport said. “That adds something, both for the audience to get to experience, but also for the students.… It matters for them to get to be a part of a larger community and for the community to get to experience this thing that they’ve cultivated together.”