Name: Cassidy Lenstrom
Hometown: Lake Forest, IL
Major: Secondary Education and English with a minor in Music
Year: Sophomore
Campus Involvement: Tour Guides, Alpha Delta Pi, Vanderbilt Off Broadway, Vitality Dance Company, Chorale Choir, The Navigators
What was it like to start your own student organization on campus? What did you have to do, etc.?
It was not my original idea to start a dance company on campus, but I knew from the start of the semester that I really missed dancing in college. I had been dancing since as long as I can remember and felt as though there was something missing in the dance community at Vanderbilt. When our current president, Emily Carskadden, approached me with the idea of starting a dance company, I did not hesitate to jump on board. At that time there were only five of us, and I was the only freshman, so you could say we had humble beginnings. After filling out some paperwork, writing a constitution, and forming the executive board, we became an official Vanderbilt club! Since then it has just been an adventure of getting new members and making ourselves known on campus.
How do you think Vitality differs from other dance groups at Vanderbilt?
The defining difference of Vitality is that we focus on bringing together a group of dancers with different backgrounds in technique in order to learn from each other. All of our dances are student choreographed and encompass a wide variety of styles. Vitality also offers workshops to the larger Vanderbilt community and brings in guest performing groups from campus to collaborate in these events. I think many performing groups on campus focus mainly on their own personal skills, but we are trying to provide an outlet for dancers all over campus who cannot commit to being in a company through these open classes.
Tell me about your upcoming show.
Our upcoming show is called “Inspired By…” and features ten student choreographed along with guest performances by Harmonic Notion, Nilaja Amari, Philippine Dance Theatre, and Tap That! The title of the show was created to allow choreographers to explore a wide variety of styles, while also showing that each piece has a distinct message and meaning. All of our members are so excited to show off what we have been learning and choreographing this whole school year. Also, this is Vitality’s first fully produced show ever which is super exciting to see just how far we’ve come in the past year.
What advice do you have for tour guide applicants/new guides?
My biggest advice for tour guide applicants is just to be yourself. I know it sounds cheesy but if you can just relax and honestly share why you love Vanderbilt, you’ll be fine. Focus on stories more than facts because they want to know the way you see Vanderbilt not just all the statistics you memorize (to be honest I don’t even know a ton of facts and I do just fine, the word “approximately” is your best friend).
What’s your favorite thing about Vanderbilt?
My favorite thing about Vanderbilt is the balance between academics and social life. While Vanderbilt obviously has great academics, it is clear that the students here value much more than just grades. Everyone I’ve met here is extremely involved in many different clubs and organizations on campus as well as in the Nashville community itself. Vanderbilt does a great job of making this campus feel like home and not just a place where we write essays and go to class.