Leah Thompson – Staff Writer
To Love the World Harder: The Gustavus Dance Company in Concert is the theme of this year’s spring concert, which will be held from 8:00 p.m. on April 7, 8 and 9, with an additional performance at 2:00 p.m. on Sunday, April 10 in the Rob and Judy Gardner Laboratory Theatre.
Tickets for the spring concert are available online at gustavustickets.com or by calling 507-933-7590. Gustavus students and staff are each given one free ticket for the event while other tickets are $10 for adults and $7 for seniors and students.
The Gustavus Dance Company is comprised of students with advanced levels in modern dance and is supervised by faculty members. The spring concert involves choreography from both students, faculty and guest choreographers.
To Love the World Harder is a student-led concert directed by Melissa Rolnick and Michele Rusinko, professors in the Theatre and Dance department. The concert will have two acts with a total of ten different pieces. The pieces will be performed by students from various years and majors.
Senior Claire Drapeau started dancing when she was very young and auditioned for the Gustavus Dance Company during her freshman year.
Drapeau is one of the two student choreographers for the spring concert and will also be performing in two other dances.
Being a choreographer involves lots of planning, “You have to create the dance and movements, pick the dancers and decide which costumes to use. You also have to choose which music would work best for the piece you’re creating,” Drapeau said.
One unique aspect Drapeau used in her choreography set was asking her dancers about music recommendations to use for her piece.
Junior Cascade Oppitz has been taking dance classes since they were four years old. They will be dancing in Melissa Rolnick’s, Jeffrey Peterson’s and Karla Grotting’s pieces. This will be the first time Oppitz will be performing and on stage since the pandemic started.
“This concert has a really wide variety of styles and subject matter covered that I think will be really appealing and engaging for the audience,” Oppitz said; they are a Dance and English double major.
First-year Ella Schwakopf has been involved with the Gustavus Dance Company since the fall but has danced for many years prior to college. She will be performing in guest-choreographer Jeffrey Peterson’s “How It Feels,” and faculty member Sarah Hauss’s “Super G”. She’s been practicing Jeffrey’s piece since the fall and started Sarah’s in the fall.
“Once I started dancing at Gustavus, I wanted to become more involved in the department. The students and faculty are really friendly and make dancing a really fun time,” Schwakopf said. She will be completing a minor in Dance during her time at Gustavus.
This will be First-year Emma Stock’s first show with the Dance Company, but she has been dancing for most of her life and was involved with Gustavus’s Competitive and Performance Dance Teams in the fall. Stock will be performing in guest choreographer Karla Grotting’s piece called “Shortwave”.
The purpose of this year’s theme is to rebuild a sense of connection and community that may have been lost during the height of the pandemic.
“The pandemic was hard on everyone and there was a loss of community. With everything going on in the world, the directors wanted to recreate that sense of joy that community creates,” Drapeau said.
To Love the World Harder will include a wide range of pieces, “There’s a journey, with an emphasis on emotional intent and focus, that the audience will see as the dancers go from piece to piece.” Schwakopf said.
“I believe this show is incredibly dynamic and all of the pieces are different from one another, but the common theme is both our love for dance and our attempt to love the world around us,” Stock said.
The spring concert is the last opportunity to watch dance performances open to the public at Gustavus. However, there will be an Honors Concert and a “Final Friday” performance in the Arb on the last Friday of classes.
Drapeau encourages students who may be interested in dance on campus, but are inexperienced, to take a class for fun and to receive a general education requirement. Classes such as Contemporary Modern Dance I and Ballet I count towards Artsc and Welbg in the Challenge Curriculum.
“Dance has always been a creative outlet and has fostered a greater connection within myself and with those around me,” Stock said.
To Love the World Harder will be held from 8:00 p.m. on April 7, 8 and 9, with an additional performance at 2:00 p.m. on Sunday, April 10 in the Rob and Judy Gardner Laboratory Theatre.