SMU Meadows School of the Arts Student Choreography Showcase Fall 2023

VIDEO LINK 

SMU Meadows School of the Arts presented the Fall 2023 Student Choreography Showcase on October 2nd - 6th. 

Students of all grades in the dance program have the opportunity to choreograph their own dances to perform for their professors, families, and friends. Many dancers choose to perform in their own dances as well, while others precast other dancers or allow for auditions. 

Samantha Penny, a sophomore dance and advertising major, describes why it is important for students to perform in special performances like this.

 “I love performing,” Penny said. “I’d say it’s the reason I dance in general.” 

Penny and her twin, Clancy, co-choreographed their piece and both performed in it as well alongside two other peers. 

The Penny’s named their dance “Changing Dynamics.” They used Dance I. First Movement composed by Oliver Davis as their music of choice. 

Another sophomore dancer, Ava Geske, performed in two other dances. She performed in two dances choreographed by seniors Celia Handing and Alec Marianek. Clips of Geske in Handing’s dance called “Soon It Will Be the Past” are shown in the video. 

Handing choreographed her dance to Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Op. 43: Variation No. 18 Andante cantabile composed by Sergei Rachmaninoff. Handing included a quote along with her performance on the program. 

“We must welcome the future, remembering that soon it will be the past; and we must respect the past, remembering that it was once all that was humanly possible,” George Santayana wrote.  

These showcases gives the audience “a different sense of the work that we do at school than just the choreographer that comes in and choreographs for us and that we perform in the Hope show,” Geske said. 

The Hope Show is the School’s big Fall concert. Three choreographers come in from anywhere across the country to audition and cast students into just three pieces, so chances of getting cast are low. The Student Choreography Showcase allows for more dancers to perform and show off their hard work.