High School Dance DayFriday, January 24, 2025 | 2:30 - 6:00pm
Schaefer Fine Arts Center

The Department of Theatre and Dance at Gustavus Adolphus College is offering an afternoon of dance master classes for high school students (grades 9-12) taught by Gustavus Dance faculty. Students with experience and no experience are welcome to participate, and they will be placed in sessions accordingly.

Cost is $10, and registration is required. Space is limited, so please register early. 
Fee includes workshops, dinner on campus and a ticket to the dance concert for the student.

Registration closes January 20, 2025.

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

Schedule - Friday, January 24

2:00- 2:30 p.m.

• Check-In

2:30- 2:55 p.m.

• Admission Presentation

3:00-3:15 p.m.

• Faculty Welcome

3:20 p.m. - 4:20 p.m.

• Workshops: Somatics and Technique (see descriptions below)

4:20 p.m. - 4:25 p.m.

• Break

4:25 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.

• Workshops: Repertory (see descriptions below)

5:40 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.

• Tour of Theatre & Dance Spaces

6:00 p.m. - 6:20 p.m.

• Q&A

6:30 p.m.

• Dinner at the Jackson Campus Center Marketplace dining hall. The Marketplace has excellent food and a variety of options, including choices for those with food allergies. 
  Link to menu for the day. A free meal ticket will be provided for students attending the event.

8:00 p.m. - 9:30 p.m.

• Performance of Wintering: The Gustavus Dance Company in Concert in the Rob and Judy Gardner Laboratory Theatre

Workshops

Contemporary Modern Dance Technique (Professor Jill Patterson)
Explore what Gustavus has to offer in a Modern Dance class that will move through warm-up, center, and across the floor. Students will be asked to move big and full; to explore from the inside out, from low to high, and maybe even a little upside down! Dancers will be encouraged to embody qualities of breath, weight, opposition, throw, and expand.

Contemporary Modern Dance Technique (Professor Sarah Hauss)
Sarah will teach a modern dance technique class based on weight and momentum, challenging student dancers to move low, high, small and large; incorporating oppositional energy in the head and limbs while maintaining embodied interconnectedness in the torso. We will start on the floor with some stretching and conditioning and then move through both center and across the floor combinations. 

Somatic Movement Exploration (Professor Melissa Rolnick or Professor Matt Trucano)
Join us as we guide you in engaging the imagination and sensation in movement exploration for enhanced creative expression.

Upperclass Student Repertory
Join upperclass students as they teach you repertoire from Guest Artist Natosha Washington (Salt Lake City). This hard-hitting, fast-moving work will be presented at the annual Amercian College Dance Association conference at UW - Steven's Point this spring, and in the faculty dance concert you will see this evening.

First-Year Student Christmas in Christ Chapel Repertory
Join current first-year students as they share repertoire from the annual first-year dance, choreographed by Jill Patterson. All incoming first-years have the opportunity to perform in the annual faculty dance concert through this modern dance choreographic experience. This session will also include our Christmas in Christ Chapel repertory. Every December, select dancers from the Gustavus Dance Company perform in Gustavus's annual 'Christmas in Christ Chapel' performance. It is an "elevated" seasonal service (in person as well as live streamed around the world) that includes the recitation of poems and scripture and live music - including chaplains, choirs, orchestras, handbells and guest artists. Dancers present choreography (set to the music and words) on the stage, in the aisles, and even up in the choral risers. You will learn material from this performance taught by student members of the cast. 

Arrival and Parking

• Gustavus Adolphus College is located at 800 West College Avenue in St. Peter, Minnesota. Here is a link to the location on Google Maps. You can also find a campus map here, and the building is located at the intersection of E-4, where it says Theatre and Dance Wing.
• There is free visitor parking in the Arboretum parking lots (lots M or N). If that is full, you can park in the Norelius Hall visitor parking lot near the Jackson Campus Center, but you will have a five minute walk to the Fine Arts building.
• After parking in the Arboretum lot, there will be signs and people to bring you to the registration area in the Schaefer Fine Arts Center, near Anderson Theatre. 
• If you will be bringing a school bus, drivers can drop students off near the Arboretum parking lots and students will enter the Schaefer Fine Arts Center. There will be signs and people to bring your group to the registration area. Following drop-off, bus drivers can park along the road near the baseball fields (map link). If the drivers don't intend to stay with the buses, our Campus Safety officers can offer them a ride back to the Fine Arts Building (or other area) after drop off. 

What to Wear

Students should wear comfortable clothes that allow for movement (leggings, leotards/tights, yoga pants, sweat pants). Students may bring jazz and/or ballet slippers if they have them, otherwise bare feet are appropriate.

Parents/Guardians

Parents/guardians are welcome to explore the campus during the workshop and have dinner with their student. Downtown St. Peter has various shops, an arts center, and coffee shops/restaurants to visit. If you would like to observe the workshops, and there is space in the room, you are welcome to do so. We are anticipating that the concert will be sold out for this performance because of students registered for this special event, so you may not be able to see the concert. Be sure to check at the door in case tickets are available, but there is no guarantee that there will be seats left.

Contact

If you have any questions or need more information about the day, please contact Kristi Borowy at kborowy@gustavus.edu or Miguel Sousa at msousa@gustavus.edu.