Dance Ensemble performs Fri./Sat.
Dance Ensemble rehearsing for the show. (Photo by Emmaline Harvey)
The Davidson College Dance Ensemble performs its annual Spring Show Friday and Saturday nights in Duke Family Performance Hall, featuring student and faculty choreography ranging from ballet and hip-hop to step and salsa.
The Dance Ensemble has been an outlet for Davidson students to learn and perform dance since 1986, when it started as a group of 12 women. Since then, it has grown to more than 160 male and female students - roughly 10% of the student population.
Freshman Stephanie Vertongen saw last year’s Spring Show when she visited during Decision Davidson weekend, and she was so impressed that she joined the organization her first week at Davidson. “I could just see that they were having so much fun up there, and I really wanted to be a part of that.”
Run by an executive board of five students, the group performs four times a year: two shows over a weekend per semester. Dance Ensemble is the most popularly attended student-run event of each semester, as well as the largest student organization on campus, and it keeps growing.
The Ensemble is so large in part because it welcomes everyone — from beginners to advanced dancers who have been training for years.
Senior Rachel Egan has watched every show for four years. “It’s easily the highlight of the semester. I look forward to seeing all my friends performing on-stage, and finally getting to see what they’ve been working on so hard for so long,” Ms. Egan said.
Sophomore Alex Mangone, who had no dance experience before coming to Davidson, said, “I was recruited by a friend last semester to be her partner in a jazz dance last semester, and it was such a great experience that I plan to be in every show until I graduate.”
This weekend’s show will be one of the ensemble’s most diverse in recent memory. The show includes 30 dances in jazz, ballet, tap, cha-cha, traditional Bulgarian, Chinese umbrella, step, Broadway, hip-hop, mambo, and more.
“It should be a great show. The pieces are so diverse and cover such a wide range of styles and levels that there is something for everyone,” said junior Harper Addison, the ensemble’s president.
Emmaline Harvey is a member of the Dance Ensemble Executive Board and a staff member of Davidson News & Notes.
DAVIDSON DANCE ENSEMBLE SPRING SHOW
WHEN: Friday and Saturday, March 30-31, 8 p.m.
WHERE: Duke Family Performance Hall, Alvarez College Union, Davidson College
TICKETS: Available through the Davidson College student union box office, at 704-894-2361.
DETAILS: On the Dance Ensemble website
Filed under: Davidson College, Davidson arts scene, Events Calendar
