DanceWorks, a fall dance show featuring original choreography by guests, faculty and students in the Department of Communication, Media and the Arts, was held on Nov. 16 at 7:30 p.m. and Nov. 17 at 2 p.m. in the Rose and Alfred Miniaci Performing Arts Center.
The show, which lasted just over an hour, included nine dance pieces. DCMA Alumna Jenna Thornton coordinated one of the pieces, “BEAUTY.” This is the first year that an alumna has come back to choreograph a piece.
Cheyenne Howell, sophomore child development major and dance minor, was a dancer in “BEAUTY,” which involved multiple strings hung across the stage. She described the piece as powerful.
“The whole concept of the piece was about society’s beauty standards, and the strings were us fighting the beauty standards,” Howell said.
Howell was also in DanceWorks last year, which was in the Performance Theatre in the Don Taft University Center. She said performing in the Miniaci Performing Arts Center was something that she’s been wanting to do.
“It was nice being away from home, because the Performance Theatre is like our home, but getting to go somewhere else, be in a professional theater, was really nice, because we felt like we were working even more as professionals,” Howell said.
Rachel Harris, senior dance major, choreographed the eighth piece, “dark[Light]ness,” which highlights the good and bad parts of life and that one is not alone.
“I really wanted to integrate my faith into dance because I don’t usually get to spread that message at Nova. I just picked something that was important to me and then ran with it from there,” Harris said.
For Harris’ piece, she also created the music, because she said nothing that was already made provided the same powerfulness that she wanted to show off in her piece.
“So that was a really fun experience to just play in logic and make beautiful music tunes. It was crazy because I kept looking for music, and I wasn’t sure what to do,” Harris said. “After a while, I just settled on making it myself because I know what I like and what I want. And what I want was powerful.”
Mika Santo, co-director of STYX The Company, choreographed the final piece of the show, “DEAR DIARY: IM ON THE OTHER SIDE.” Performed by 10 NSU dancers and two guest performers from STYX The Company, the piece touches on the triumph one feels as one walks through life.
Amaia Flores, sophomore double major in dance and communication and Mako Media Network’s assistant social media manager, performed in Santo’s piece.
“My normal style is contemporary, so getting to work with Mika was a dream because her whole piece was outside of my comfort zone,” Flores said. “It’s a weird, different way of moving. There were so many people from STYX in Mika’s cast, like Rachel [Abelenda] and Meagan [Christiansen]. So, it inspired me to move like that, like how can I articulate my body in the STYX way.”
Olivia Knerr, junior double major in dance and exercise and sport science, was in four pieces this year. She’s participated in DanceWorks for the past three years.
“DanceWorks 2024 was an amazing show. I continue to hear great things on the outside,” Knerr said. “People who went for the first time, coming to me and saying it was such a great show.”
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