Alonzo Williams, adjunct professor in the dance program, taught a hip-hop class during this year’s Dance Awareness Day on Oct. 16. He said dance can be a universal skill.
“Dance is a musical tool to help you navigate through life,” Williams said.
Dance Awareness Day is an annual event hosted by the Department of Communication, Media, and the Arts dance program. The classes were taught by NSU faculty, guest faculty from Miami City Ballet, and STYX The Company, a professional dance company.
The event ran from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. in several venues, so each class could take place simultaneously in the Performance Theatre, University Center dance studio 233, the Black Box Theatre, the RecPlex and the Rose and Alfred Miniaci Performing Arts Center.
The NSU dance program celebrated Dance Awareness Day by hosting classes for college and high school students. Throughout the day, there were 14 different dance classes in styles like improv, contemporary dance, jazz funk, hip-hop and African dance. One of the classes was taught by Madison Cantor, senior dance major.
“Dance Awareness Day is an event that our dance team hosts, and it’s mainly just to get people inspired to take class and move their bodies and enjoy themselves in this type of artistic format. It’s a way to get NSU students to see what we have to offer here in the dance program. But we also invite high schools to come, so that they see NSU, they see our dance program and they can get inspired to come here,” Cantor said.
This year had the largest number of high school students with over 150 students coming to participate in the event.
Elana Lanczi, dance program director of dance, said it’s a good opportunity to have a variety of classes.
“Dance Awareness Day, it’s just a fun opportunity to bring in guest artists, to get our dance majors an opportunity to lead a class,” Lanczi said.
Many students who are not in the dance program, such as Kiyah Bowen, freshman pre-nursing major, joined the classes to get in touch with their creative side, even if it was their first time dancing.
“I heard about this event through some friends, but I have always been drawn to hip-hop. You can add your own style and taste to it. I think hip-hop is one of those styles where you can personalize it yourself. So it’s not super technical,” Bowen said.
Mika Santo, co-director of STYX, came to teach a class on contemporary dance in the Performance Theatre at 11 a.m.
STYX also had an informal comteporary performance to end the day and finish celebrating Dance Awareness Day.
“Watching Mika teach [contemporary] is always such a blessing because she has such sharp movements while keeping a cool flow together,” Williams said.
Lanczi said that she sees Dance Awareness Day as a community outreach opportunity, which ties into the planning process.
“One of the things that has been very helpful is that I’ve been able to establish some relationships with high schools in the area that have been coming more regularly,” Lanczi said.
“People are already reaching out to me in the summer to make this happen. I also reach out to my dance students to see who wants to teach a class.”
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