Campus Recreation and Wellness provided an opportunity to experience music, health and history one step, spin, and kick at a time with Hamilton Dance Class.
Students gathered Wednesday evening for the second Hamilton Dance Class, learning the choreography for “The Room Where It Happens,” which features Aaron Burr, played in the original cast by Leslie Odom Jr..
In the musical, Burr broods over his exclusion from a secret dinner meeting between Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, according to Claire Lampen from Yahoo News.
Tuesday evening, students learned “My Shot,” which features Alexander Hamilton, played in the original cast by the Broadway musical’s creator, Lin Manuel-Miranda.
The class is part of the GroupX Program, which provides group fitness classes for WKU students, faculty and staff at the Raymond B. Preston Health & Activities Center.
Morgan Solomon, a freshman interior design major, leads the Dance Fundamentals class every Tuesday and Wednesday from 6:30 to 7:30.
“We’ve done swing dance, we’ve done jazz, we’ve done hula dancing, and salsa,” Solomon said.
Solomon started to dance when she was three, and has performed on stilts and aerial silks, hoops and hammocks in the circus since she was 11 years old. She said she is interested in bringing circus classes to Preston.
The instruction starts slowly and teaches the choreography move by move, allowing students of all experience levels time to learn. Once students get a hold of the moves, they put them to music, first at half speed, then at full speed and add them to the full routine.
Solomon encouraged students to fully commit to the process and not to worry about feeling embarrassed.
“The key to being a good dancer is just being incredibly overconfident in yourself,” Solomon said. “If you feel like you’re doing something wrong, no, you’re not. Have fun with it, do you.”
Ainsley Woodward, a freshman in the Gatton Academy of Mathematics and Science interested in exercise science, attended the Hamilton Dance Class. She said she did ballet for 13 years.
“I didn’t want to stop dancing when I came here,” Woodward said.
She plans to join the dance program next semester and add dance as a minor.
Gracelyn Bohrer, a freshman fashion merchandising major, said she has been dancing since she was 6 years old. She said she has experience in a variety of dancing styles and is a member of the Big Red Marching Band’s color guard.
“I really like Hamilton, and I really like dancing, so here I am,” Bohrer said.
Solomon said her experience in the world of dance was useful when planning the Hamilton classes.
“I called some of my dance friends who were co-captains on the Hamilton tour, and then through a combination of them, and then online videos and stuff, I learned it so I could teach them,” Solomon said.
Solomon also said that she considers it important to teach the history along with the dances, especially when it comes to styles in which she doesn’t have a background. For Hula, she said she approached a native Hawaiian dancer and credited her in class. She said she plans to do the same for a Bollywood night, requested by a student, which would feature Indian dance styles.
“I don’t want to be part of the problem, with creating fake things and fake culture,” Solomon said. “It’s kind of just an appreciation for the love of dance and where it comes from.”
Solomon said learning choreography from Hamilton was suggested by one of the student participants.
Solomon has also received requests for future class themes, including ballet, TikTok dances and Michael Jackson. She said she also plans on doing a Halloween theme, featuring Time Warp from Rocky Horror Picture Show.
“With dance, there’s so much going on all the time.” Solomon said, “The beautiful thing about it is that everyone loves it, everyone loves dance. Everyone loves the movement, the art form of it, so they all want to know each other. It’s small community but big world.”
