Are you an incoming or prospective student with a passion for the visual and/or performing arts? Then this is the week for you! Every day we will be featuring a guest blogger, each with a unique story to share about the thriving artistic communities at UVA. Our fourth guest is Zoe Ziff, a third-year student minoring in dance!
After just having spent a gap year studying contemporary dance with an international company, I knew I wanted to continue dancing at UVa as a first-year. I wasn’t sure what studying dance at a university would be like – like many other dancers who come to Grounds, most of my previous education consisted of taking technique classes and learning choreography. To feel it out I started by taking the performance class related to the semesterly Dance Concert. I was in two pieces and it felt both professional and so much fun!
I have been performing every semester ever since, and have taken more classes within the program to complete my (now declared!!) dance minor. The performance class is unique in that performers work directly with students, faculty, and/or guest choreographers and rehearse at hours that work for the whole group, rather than a set class time. The difference between these Dance Concerts and CIO performances is that students receive credit for performing and choreographers work closely with faculty mentors. Performing is a new experience every semester since I work with new choreographers every semester, and I end up learning so much about their style and the different ways artists work.
2018 Fall Dance Concert, Dance Program of the Department of Drama. Photo by Jack Looney.
Other non-performance classes meet at a predetermined time weekly, and the following classes make up a dance minor curriculum in addition to performance: at least two technique classes, improvisation, composition, a dance history or culture lecture class, movement analysis, and an elective like dance film, choreography, or another class in the drama department. It seemed all a bit overwhelming when I first looked into it, but balancing my dance coursework with my chemistry major is very doable. And since the dance program only offers a minor, everyone in the program is balancing one or two majors with minor requirements.
What I like most about the dance minor is that it gives dancers outstanding training and in-depth development and exploration, but it is small enough to remain personal. Professors have seen me grow and change throughout my time at UVa and always give thought-out and individualized feedback no matter what I was working on. One of my professors was even willing to help me over the weekend put together an audition video for a summer intensive!
I also found some of my best friends by participating in the dance program. Everyone comes in with a different movement background and we often learn from each other as much as we learn from the course material. We rehearse together, take class, go to performances, consult with each other about choreography, eat together, comfort each other when we mess up or get hurt, and celebrate our dance and non-dance related achievements together. Dancers also have the support of the Dance Committee, a CIO that supports the dance program with social events for students and that helps out with workshops and visiting dance artists.
We also get the chance to go outside UVa. A few of my favorite memories come from our yearly trek to ACDA, a regional dance conference where we perform a piece from the program and take classes with faculty from other universities. At these events I feel nervous, but strong, happy, and motivated too. I was especially inspired by the last ACDA I went to in March, where we saw dozens of student and faculty performances, and it not only gave me ideas for the choreography I was working on at the time, but had me seriously considering graduate-level education in dance.
Being a Dance Minor has shaped my experience at UVa in a major way. I would recommend the Dance Program to anyone who wants to go a little bit (or a lotta-bit!) deeper into their movement practice and who want to be with other people who love moving as much as they do! You can learn more about the dance program at UVA here: https://drama.virginia.edu/dance.
Blog by Zoe Ziff, a third-year student at the University of Virginia. Contact her at zez2as@virginia.edu with any questions or curiosities about the dance program at UVA!
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