Now Playing: New Dancer Showcase
To wrap up a successful semester of productions, the Joan Phelps Palladino School of Dance will perform the New Dancer Showcase tonight and tomorrow, December 10-11, 2021. The performance is an informal showing of dance works created by upperclassmen dance majors and performed by our first-year dance majors.
We spoke to Robbie Seeley ’23, a Technical Theatre major with a minor in Arts and Entertainment Management, and Peter Mansfield ’22, a double major in Dance and Exercise Science, to learn more about the showcase.
Q: What is your role? Tell us a little about what your role has involved and how you’ve been preparing for the showcase.
Robbie: “I'm the Stage Manager for New Dancer Showcase this year! My role is making sure that all the technical aspects of the show happen when they are supposed to and making sure the show goes smoothly.”
Peter: “I am so excited to be a part of the New Dancer Showcase! I am a choreographer along with my co-choreographer Mary Kuhn ’22. Being the choreographer has allowed me time to explore new movement styles and teach the freshman class new movement style they might have never learned before and open their eyes to a whole new genre of dance. My favorite part of being able to be a choreographer to the freshman class has been to see light bulbs going off in their heads and in their eyes as they nail new kinds of choreography and how they are able to make the movement their own.”
Q: Do you enjoy the collaboration between first-year students and upperclassmen? What has that experience been like?
Robbie: “I love seeing the collaboration on a show like this. I enjoy seeing what the upperclassman choreographers come up with, and the trust between new dancers and senior choreographers to create a cool piece of art together.”
Peter: “I love being able to work with new dancers to the college scene. Being able to see the technique they had growing up and seeing how they are able to grow stronger and more adaptable within even just their first semester here at Dean gives me great pride and joy, like an older sibling would feel about their younger siblings. There have been challenges in the road, as the cast of my piece, ‘Chromatic Hardrive,’ can attest. But because of these challenges and bumps in the road, all of the first-year students can say where they are now compared to where they started at the start of our adventure together as choreographer and dancers. My favorite part of working with the freshmen is watching them grow.”
Q: What are you most excited for the audience to see?
Robbie: “My favorite part of any dance showcase is the tap pieces! And I’m just as excited for the audience to see them.”
Peter: “I think what my co-choreographer and I are most excited about the audience to see from our piece, ‘Chromatic Hardrive,’ specifically is a new style of movement a lot of people may not have seen before coming into the collegiate level of movement we are in now through our journey at Dean College. Through learning from the faculty and other students, I have been able to collaborate with a classmate and create this amazing dance piece being presented within New Dancer Showcase.”
Q: What is your favorite part about participating in the New Dancer Showcase?
Robbie: “The best part of being the stage manager on the New Dancer Showcase is being able to create with another group of people. I’m always impressed with what the dancers create, and I enjoy being able to help bring their visions to life.”
Peter: “My favorite part of being able to participate within the New Dancer Showcase is watching the freshmen learn and grow as the semester and year go on. Watching as the more dance technique classes they take at the collegiate level, the more their dancing improves and grows, and they are able to use their bodies in the most efficient and beautiful ways possible.”
The Dean College New Dancer Showcase will take place in the Main Stage in the Campus Center at Dean College, 109 West Central Street, Franklin at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, with a 2:00 p.m. matinee on Saturday.
To learn more and purchase tickets, visit the Dean College Box Office