Cadence Dance Company

This past year I was elected co-president of a dance company here on campus, Cadence Dance Company. I have been on this company since my first semester of college. Students on campus may not realize this, but there is a huge dance community here at Michigan. Each year the calendar is packed with performances, bar nights, and the largest event of the year: Dance Mix. The companies were largely impacted by the pandemic, obviously- we were forced to practice outside, online, and socially distanced.

Cadence traditionally has one showcase in addition to participating in Dance Mix. Unfortunately this year, we were unable to have the traditional showcase as expected. My co-president and I decided still create works, however, they will be recorded and turned into concept videos, and starting in April we will begin to release them on the Cadence Instagram and Youtube. This allows us to still be an active team and work towards something, yet still feasible for the situation.

Cadence as a whole is filled with hard working, talented individuals, and no I am not biased. With the uncertainty this year has presented our team was consistently flexible and ready to adjust to whatever was thrown our way. We would often practice outside in the cold, or change practice location last minute, and we even last minute record our piece before leaving for break. Throughout it all our team has been eager, helpful, and positive. We would not have survived this year without them.

This past week we released a dance that we rehearsed and recorded first semester. The dance was choreographed by the incredibly talented Claire DiFranco, and performed by the whole Cadence team. As I said before we last minute decided to record this piece before break. As break began to approach so did the COVID cases, and the school then broke all of its housing contracts with the freshmen. Leaving many of our freshman with no choice but to stay home second semester, consequently taking them out of the company until fall 2022. We really wanted to have one piece with the entire team, even if it meant we were not able to rehearse it and clean it to the extent that we usually do. The weekend  before everyone left for break, we all get tested and recorded Claire DiFranco’s piece outside in the cold for five hours. The entire team was extremely positive and flexible with the last minute filming schedule and undesired weather.

It was such a pleasure to see it all come together that day. I was truly thankful to be surrounded by such incredible artists. Claire and I have had to adjust and find new ways to share our passion in a time of social distancing, however, we have thought outside the box and our team persevered, because of this we have something to show for all of our hard work. Make sure to keep an eye out on the Cadence social medias for the release of more works starting in April!

https://www.instagram.com/tv/CLskVZil1ap/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link