Hannah Wirt never stops moving. You may recognize her from the Dancer’s Symposium stage, as your precollege counselor from this past summer, as your Delta Gamma sister or even as the girl who sits in the front row of your Decision Science class. Hannah seems to be all over campus, and the whole time, she’s wearing her tap shoes.
Last spring, Hannah joined the DS Company, and ever since, has burst onto the CMU dance scene. Although she started dancing at an old age—seventh grade, which is late compared to most dancers who start at three years old—she has hit her stride in the world of ballet, contemporary and tap. With DS, Hannah was one of six girls to perform in Purnell’s, “Dance Lights.” As part of the only group to perform that was not associated with the school of drama, Hannah owned the stage in the group’s ballet based on Anna Karenina.
“I was smiling on stage the whole time at first, but I wasn’t supposed to smile because there was so much intense emotion [in the piece]. But the music, it captures you. You feel it.”
To Hannah, dance is how she expresses every single one of her emotions. That is what makes it easy for her connect to a dance piece. Although she laments that she is not going to win a Grammy anytime soon, she has learned from Dance Lights how acting is such an intricate part of dancing. It’s about exploring your emotions, your excitements and your fears, through movement.
Hannah plans to drive these emotions into the fierce number that DS has in store this weekend for Lunar Gala, the annual student run fashion show. “It’s a fierce dance,” she says. “It’s in accordance with [the show’s theme of] snakes… We’re like sassy snakes.” The dance more hip-hop with a lot of leaps and turns. While Hannah cannot confirm as to whether or not snakes will be used in the performance, she has promised awesome costumes—think shiny gold and combat boots.
In addition to preparing for Lunar Gala, Hannah is choreographing her first performance for this spring’s Dancer’s Symposium. She is excited to branch out from a more traditional type of tap, and can’t wait to maximize the talent of her dancers to put on an awesome show. She is teaching fourteen other dancers a new style of tap that focuses on a fast rhythm with a lot of stomps and tricky tap moves. Although this is Hannah’s first choreography, this isn’t the first time she’s teaching dance. As a precollege counselor, Hannah formed a dance club for the students over the summer. She loves working with people, and thrives upon the thrill of teaching and facilitating others.
Hannah can see herself as a teacher or professor of any type one day, but she’s not closing off any options. “I would love to work in the CIA. It’s one of my dream jobs. They have great benefits.” Yet no matter what Hannah’s doing, she’ll definitely be doing it with a smile and tapping feet.