On the evening of March 8 in the theatre of the DeWitt Student & Cultural Center, the house lights dimmed, and the audience hushed. Soon, it went completely dark, and then the curtain opened. A live pianist, drummer, and bassist shared the stage with a portable tap floor laid on top of the stage. Over the course of several minutes, multiple students entered the stage and danced to the live music in a complicated rhythm. Following were six more pieces. The most memorable of these was perhaps that which was strongly reminiscent of a person on his deathbed. The lightness and precision of the ballet piece contrasted heavily with the other pieces and made for a well-rounded show, with mesh skirts and long visual lines. A total of fifty students had taken the stage this night, which was the closing night of the dance department’s annual student performance.
Isabelle Park is one of those students, a dance major originally from Caro, Michigan. Like many dancers, she was first introduced to the artform as a toddler and participated in competitions as well. She attended the dance concentration program at Saginaw Arts & Sciences Academy for her last three years of high school. She is now a sophomore at Hope and a part of the student company Strike Time.
Also involved in Hope’s productions, Erik Van Tassell dabbled in acting, directing, and even tap, but now he is the assistant professor of lighting and sound design for both the dance and theater departments. He teaches lighting design and stage production. These classes can be somewhat challenging because they introduce new software, teach abstract interpersonal skills, and, most importantly, require students to notice lighting in productions. ”Typically…you’re thinking about what you came there to see, right?…And actually, as the designer, I don’t want you looking at the lighting either. I want you watching the cohesive whole,” he said.
On the other hand, Matthew Farmer, the dance department chair, “…came to Hope specifically as an actor…I had never taken dance until my freshman year…But yeah, [I] absolutely fell in love with it.” His professional dance career has included a guesting with Merce Cunningham Dance Company, and his students have ended up all over the country, including at Charlotte Ballet and teaching for the Kardashians. After retiring from the stage, Farmer worked in the dance departments at Anderson and Eastern Michigan Universities.
Park said Hope’s dance program stood out to her among others because “You have to take classes in all five…of the core styles…So modern, ballet, jazz, tap, and hip-hop…”. She was drawn to Hope because she wanted “a more well-rounded education”. There are many opportunities for both performing and choreographing, class sizes are small, and students receive help obtaining gigs. Hope doesn’t even require an audition–anyone can come.
In addition to being well-rounded, Farmer said Hope is also one of the few colleges that simultaneously allows students to tailor their studies to “meet the needs of what they want to do after college”, which includes both concert and commercial dance. Hope, therefore, doesn’t have a single strong suit. However, it is one of the two top colleges for tap dance, and one of two that offers a hip hop concentration. Thirdly, there are dance pedagogy and dance production minors available in addition to performance/choreography and dual majors; not all schools offer all of these tracks. In addition to boasting a faculty full of former professional dancers and current professional choreographers, Hope’s production quality is comparable to the professional level.
While Hope does not offer a BFA, Van Tassell said its BA allows students to still be involved in other departments; it makes them “a whole human being”. However, the program is still filled to the brim with classes–a “fat BA”–and holds students to a high standard. Hope also stands out because it is a Christian liberal arts college, not a conservatory or large public university, that offers high quality dance instruction; for some, dance and faith are separate, but for others, they are intrinsically intertwined.
The student ensemble Strike Time visits area schools annually, presenting short performances based on the local Big Read and Little Read books of that school year; they also put on their own main (concert) performance.
Hope’s other student company, H2, is made up of mostly older students with a stronger focus on concert dance. However, when it comes to performance opportunities in general, Park says, “You can truly do as little or as much as you want to.” There is an end-of-year showcase, competition showcases, DanceX (the annual department-wide performance), and “…tons of clubs…I’m in, like, seven or eight pieces right now, just between everything.”
Van Tassell and his students design and direct the lighting mostly for H2’s shows. While in theater lighting is focused on the actors’ faces so the audience can lip read and understand the dialogue, in dance the lighting can be more creative and focus on lighting the overall form because there is no talking. “When choreography is done really, really well, it stands on its own…” and doesn’t need lighting or special sound, he said. However, it can help direct attention and evoke emotion, drawing gasps out of the impacted audience.
Fortunately, those gasps will always come from reactions to pieces, not injuries that occur onstage; Hope holds longstanding accreditation from the National Association of Schools of Dance (NASD), which ensures student health and safety as well as institution transparency; Farmer is an accreditor himself. “I think the next evolution is getting our existing studios renovated,” he said. He mentioned the brand new Jim and Eileen Heeringa Dance Wing, which opened in October. Park said, “It’s so big and beautiful…The new flooring…feels great on your feet…”.
Park’s advice to an incoming dance student at Hope? “Have fun…”; firsts are always scary. “…Say yes to…auditions… to different rehearsals and new experiences.”
As for Farmer, he said, “…That it’s never really…about talent to be honest, it’s about…” hard work and being okay with rejection. Second, “…We want freshmen specifically to experience college their first year, because the more you get into dance, the more you have to give up outside of dance…So if you want to go to [a] basketball game go to [a] basketball game…like, do that…”.
Park closed with, “…I love it here…I feel like I’m being adequately prepared…And there’s such great people here, both students and professors.”
