Lights, camera… DANCE! This year’s Dancers’ Symposium definitely lived up to everyone’s expectations, from twerking to tapping and everything in between. And all that magic couldn’t possibly have happened without the hard work and dedication of dancers like Erin Persson, who have been working tirelessly this semester to make DS a reality.
Erin is a sophomore Civil Engineering student, cross country runner, and a member of Kappa Alpha Theta at CMU. This is also her second semester of Dancers’ Symposium. Since the second week of the spring semester, Erin and the rest of the DS crew have been attending dance practices each week to learn the moves and prepare for the show. Practices are held in the UC activities room, the Skibo fencing room, and the Morewood activities room.
Erin was in two hip hop dances this year – Michelle Cho’s and Lisa Natale’s. She and the rest of her dance crew showed us their stuff on stage with jean shorts, graphic tank tops, and flannels. She even got to wear animal print for her second dance!
Although we only get to witness the finished product, there is a ton of work that goes on leading up to the performance. Erin admits that is can be hard to schedule her rehearsals around the other commitments she has. “It sucks sometimes to bounce from rehearsal to meetings to homework and devote all the energy I want to devote to this,” she says, “but I always manage to get into the dance when we start rehearsal because it’s so easy to get lost in.”
Even though scheduling is hard, Erin still completely loves DS. Some practices in the past have been easier than others, but she enjoys the fact that it gives dancers the opportunity to get together and make a choreographer’s vision come to life. “My favorite thing about DS is the community it builds,” Erin says. “You go through so much and work so hard as a dancer, choreographer, whatever, and it’s so rewarding to make this happen with all these people who become your friends, because you all love the same thing.”
With Erin’s awesome dancing this year, we’re all completely stoked to see her next semester for another round of DS. Until then, she and the rest of the crew will be taking a well-deserved break before they start working (twerking) on next fall’s show. Great job Erin! Make sure to check out videos from the show at http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/org/dancer/media.html.
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