The Experience of a Lifetime for AU Dance Majors

             Start your college dance training on the right foot! Adelphi's dance department offers ballet and modern classes to all Adelphi students whether you are a dance major or not. Train with experienced faculty from the Paul Taylor Dance Company, The Jennifer Mueller Company, the Bolshoi Ballet, the Kirov Ballet and many other companies.

            Special for our dance majors, like me, Taylor 2, a company under Paul Taylor, had a three week residency at Adelphi. This company of six dancers, from around the world, came and taught classes, rehearsed and performed two shows all at Adelphi! Every week, they taught every dancer twice. They each have a different take on the Paul Taylor style so each class was a different experience. Some were more physical, some more elegant. In the afternoon, they held open rehearsals. Anyone on campus could come into their rehearsals and watch them dance. See the blood, sweat and tears that makes dance so beautiful. They performed two shows in our Dance Theater located in the Performing Arts Center, February 13th and 20th. Each show consisted of three works and each show was completely different. If you went to both shows you saw 6 different works! Now I know you are wondering, two shows must be expensive. Well, Adelphi has what is called Student Rush. An hour before the show, if there are still seats available, Adelphi students can get a free ticket! The arts on a budget!

                                                                Taylor 2 cast pictured performing Dust.

            The final week of the Taylor 2 residency was my personal favorite. It was run like a Paul Taylor Intensive. Second class, every day, two members from Taylor 2 taught us original repertoire. I got to perform Dust, a piece about times of trouble and death. Dust is an 8 minute very fast  piece full of many jumps. It was tiring and exhausting but a lot of fun and extremely rewarding when I finally got it right. Friday, each level got to show their repertoire, kind of like our own little performance so everyone could see how hard we have been working that week. Other levels got to perform moments from the Rite of Spring, the Cloven Waltz, and Sunset. After the performances, there was a Q&A with Taylor 2. We got to ask them any question we wanted from what is your favorite moment from this company to the cost of your rent from your first apartment in the city, all questions important to dancers looking to be professionals. Adelphi is training us to be able to dance but these experiences give us the chance to see how we make dance a career.