TWU Dance attending ACDA conference

March 6, 2023 – DENTON – For the first six months of the 2022-23 academic calendar, Texas Woman's University dancers have been practicing and preparing and performing in the Dance-Gymnastics Laboratory Building, Pioneer Hall and Margo Jones Performance Hall. Now they're taking the show on the road.

This week, 16 students and three faculty and staff members from TWU are participating in the American College Dance Association's conferences, celebrating the organization's 50th year supporting dance in higher education.

The TWU contingent traveled to Huntsville, Texas, for the ACDA's South Central Region conference hosted by Sam Houston State March 6-9.

"We tell our students, get out of your TWU dance bubble when you go to ACDA," said program coordinator Dayna Ballenger. "Don't just take classes from TWU professors or grad students. Go out and spread out. Don't stick with just your friends the whole time. Go and take something that you're interested in that's different from what your friends are taking."

Schools attending the four-day conference include Southern Illinois, Lamar, Texas A&M, Stephen F. Austin, North Texas, New Mexico, Houston, Texas and Texas State. Faculty and graduate students from across the region will teach classes in their respective specialties, giving students a chance to learn beyond the borders of their home classrooms.

"It's a great opportunity for our students to get their name out there and network, to take classes from other professors," said Elisa De La Rosa, assistant professor of dance. "Many of them will be looking into going to grad school someday. So it's kind of a snapshot for them. What would it be like if I was a student at Sam Houston or UT Austin?

"It's a really great opportunity to meet, because the dance world is not that big," De La Rosa added. "Once these students get outside of our little house here at TWU, they see the larger spectrum of dance in our region, and we have a very powerful region."

The conference will showcase the region's best dancers and works in a series of concerts throughout the week. Those works will be adjudicated, a select few will be included in the closing gala concert and two works will earn a trip to the national conference in May.

TWU's entrants in the adjudicated works are from the 2022 Fall Dancemakers concert: Shakuntala's Plea, choreographed by "Sumi" Rajalaxmi Srikanth and performed by Raechel Corey; and Reciprocal, choreographed by Katie Gutmann and performed by T'Keyah Cleveland and Daniel Garcia.

There will also be an informal concert that will include a performance of Humanoid, choreographed by Sarah Tran and performed by nine dancers.

"This is the largest group that we've ever taken," said De La Rosa, who along with TWU's Charmain Wells and Brittany Padilla will be teaching. "We got a really good funding support from Student Life.

"Brittany is our staff accompanist, and she's going to be playing for multiple classes for different schools," De La Rosa said. "She's also presenting a class on music for beginners, for dancers, how to make their own music score."

TWU graduate students Garcia, Gutmann, Rebeca Gamborino, Allen LaPoint and Makayla Rosenberger will also be teaching classes.

"It's a learning experience," Ballenger said. "Even if they're not in a concert, students are witnessing all these works. We want them to attend the performances so they learn about the adjudication process and what kind of advice the adjudicators have for these emerging choreographers. At ACDA, the obligation is to take class and dance. It's really fun to just see them just hyped up to just take class all day."