Morgan Edgerton is the girl dancing to hip-hop music in the studio across the hall. She is the music blasting through radio speakers on Monday nights. She is the brains behind the design of a student-run website. Edgerton’s passion for dance, art and technology has taken her just about everywhere on the UT campus.
Edgerton, a computer science junior, is involved in a multitude of dance programs around Austin. She taught a hip-hop class at TRU Dance Project in North Austin last summer and currently dances with the UT-founded iGotSole company. Edgerton, who started ballet training at age three, dances on a weekly basis with iGotSole.
“I did a music video with iGotSole last year and will be in one coming up,” Edgerton said. “That’s one thing I’d love to do in the future — is to be in music videos and keep dancing.”
UT alumnus Jonathon “JT” Thomas is the founder of iGotSole and dances with Edgerton in rehearsals. He said she has brought a sense of hard work and enthusiasm to the company.
“Morgan is one of my dancers that just commits 100 percent to everything,” Thomas said. “She’s very supportive when it comes to any of the concepts when we’re working on the production. She’s a great student, and she knows how to take criticism correctly.”
Thomas also said Edgerton’s talent is evident during rehearsal.
“As far as being a dancer, she is phenomenal,” Thomas said. “She has a style that nobody else in the company necessarily has. She knows how to infuse her personality into dancing, and she doesn’t stop trying until she gets it right.”
Edgerton also hosts a radio show with her boyfriend on KVRX every Monday at 10 p.m. called “The Cat’s Pajamas,” which they’ve done for two years. Edgerton plays funk music on the show, and her boyfriend plays electronic music.
“[Radio] is definitely a hobby. It’s something I never thought I would do, but it’s just one of those things that the campus offered, and I had to try it,” Edgerton said.
Edgerton is also involved with web design. Unlike her love of dance, she said she didn’t discover her interest in technology until she got to college.
“I have always been interested in art and dance,” Edgerton said. “When I started college is when I found technology and how much I loved technology. Throughout college I’ve been joining activities in both of those areas — dance and technology.”
She is currently working on web design for a new student-run magazine, “Middle Class White Girls,” and is a part of the startup Choreo, a phone app designed for dancers and dance enthusiasts. Choreo, which is set to launch in November, is one of the startups in this year’s Longhorn Startup Lab. Ben Dyer, the program’s entrepreneur in-residence, is a mentor for Morgan and her group.
“Morgan and her team came highly recommended to me back in August by another one of our students,” Dyer said. “I encouraged her to apply for [the program]. Choreo is a very strong group, and I can see they are doing all the right things to solidify their idea.”
Edgerton said she co-founded the app after noticing there was not a social platform geared toward dancers.
“It’s a social networking platform as well as a lot of tools dancers need,” Edgerton said. “I’ve been wanting to find a way to combine those things. I am finding a way to combine art and technology.”
