Captivating the audience with expressive movements, students from a variety of majors join together and find comfort in dance.
Dance Action, an organization that provides opportunities for dance among all students, hosts a semesterly showcase called Students Exhibiting Experimental Dance. Composed of various dance pieces, S.E.E.D. remains entirely produced, choreographed and performed by students and opened yesterday and will showcase tonight in the Lab Theatre at 7 p.m.
“It’s just a way to broaden the dance community across UT’s campus and build a community of dancers and artists who don’t want to particularly major in dance but have a space to come together,” said Laura Anawaty, dance senior and co-president of UT Dance Action. “Whether that’s dancing in a piece or creating a piece.”
This semester, UT Dance Action selected 2o choreographers for S.E.E.D.
Anawaty, S.E.E.D. choreographer and dancer, said the entire performance contains around 60 dancers.
“Each choreographer will pick how many people they want in their piece, … and, since there are so many dancers, the choreographers will choose what dancer they think will fit their style the best,” Anawaty said. “Each piece is a different style, a different concept, a different genre of dance.”
Jannah Collins, S.E.E.D. choreographer and dancer, said she wanted to choreograph for her last semester at UT.
“It’s a good moment as a choreographer … to put yourself out there, get people to see your work and to build community and collaborate with others,” Collins said.
Anawaty said creating dance pieces tends to bond everyone in S.E.E.D. together, and, as a choreographer, she strives to see dancers enjoy themselves during performances.
“My goal is to make people smile and feel good through dance and allow my dancers and my piece to feel comfortable on stage,” Anawaty said.
Kaysa Kerr, biology junior and S.E.E.D. dancer said she performed in S.E.E.D. every semester beginning her freshman year.
“The rehearsals leading up to the performance are always the most stressful because you have a lot to work on and you want to get everything right,” Kerr said.
Anawaty said a continuous obstacle endured during S.E.E.D. remains the roughly four weeks of practice they get from the time of auditions to the performance.
“It’s not a lot of time to create a whole dance, so it’s been very fast-paced with the rehearsals and a quick turnaround in the audition,” Anawaty said. “But, it always ends up good because everyone that’s in S.E.E.D. knows how fast it goes by, and everyone is dedicated and wants to make the dances good.”
Anawaty said S.E.E.D. allows students to watch peers, friends and colleagues put their artistry on stage and showcase it to the world.
“You will not be bored if you come to S.E.E.D., you will leave feeling inspired,” Anawaty said. “It’s a really good dance show where people can showcase their art and leave with a big smile on their face from seeing how talented all these dancers and choreographers are.”
