The WKU Department of Theatre & Dance will perform its annual “WinterDance” Friday through Saturday in Van Meter Auditorium. The show begins at 7:30 p.m. on Friday and Saturday and at 2 p.m. on Sunday.
The performance runs for less than two hours and features ten distinct dance numbers performed by the WKU Dance Company. Each number contributes to an overarching theme. This year’s performance is titled “‘Tis the Season.”
“The whole concert is based on all of the different seasons of the year,” Abby Luelleman, a freshman Dance Company member majoring in dance and exercise science, said. “So you have your fall, your winter, your summer, your spring and then all of the dances kind of fit into those themes.”
Meghen McKinley is an associate professor of dance and this semester’s director of WinterDance following her nine years of involvement.
“This is one of the big, main stage concerts for the department. For the dance program, it is our biggest concert of the semester,” McKinley said.
Auditions for Dance Company are held at the beginning of the fall semester, with weekly rehearsals starting just three weeks afterward. The Theatre & Dance department works on production collectively.
“There is an incredible group of dancers… very talented student workers and student designers that contribute to the show as well,” McKinley said.
Ella Claire Johns, a junior company member majoring in dance and exercise science, said many professors in the theatre department help students manage technical aspects of the show such as lighting and music.
“They run a lot of the technical side of this performance […] It not only introduces and kind of combines all the students, but the professors as well,” she said.
The theatre department takes charge of costuming, set design and creation as well as backstage management.
Dance faculty members also contribute by choreographing the numbers. This year, a guest artist from Austin Peay State University taught an Afro-jazz piece that will be included in the program.
Students are also able to test their choreography skills once they become seniors.
“The seniors actually choreograph the finale,” McKinley said. “It’s become a new tradition for us to have this kind of passing of the torch.”
WinterDance is a community event not just for the students and faculty involved, but also for the audience.
“WinterDance is special… it being a larger community, family-friendly concert to really invite the community and little kids to come,” McKinley said.
The WKU Dance & Theatre Department is self-supported by ticket sales. The department does not receive university funding, McKinley said.
“It’s important to support these artists and their pre-professional careers before they go out into the professional world,” said McKinley.
Tickets for WinterDance can be purchased online at WKU’s Fine Arts Box Office. Ticket prices are $17 for adults, $12 for students and seniors (over 65) and $10 for children (12 and under).
News Reporter Natalie Freidhof can be reached at [email protected].
