Student Group Feature: The Villanova Dance Company | Culture

The Villanova Dance Enterprise and Ensemble performs at numerous functions in the campus community. According to the Villanova web page, the business is a pick group of dancers who execute at gatherings both equally on and off campus. They are expected to audition at the commencing of the yr, go to class twice a week and be current for rehearsals and other situations. 

Villanova’s dance team performs particular and artistic choreography with quantities choreographed by director Melissa Salcedo and other outside businesses. These student dancers accomplish at once-a-year gatherings on campus these types of as Distinctive Olympics, St. Thomas of Villanova Day of Assistance and Parents’ Weekend. Moreover, they carry out as company for the Villanova basketball game titles at selected online games all over the time. Nonetheless, with the COVID-19 pandemic, things have been a tiny distinctive this calendar year. 

What can make this yr complicated for the business is the lack of space they have been ready to reserve for rehearsals and courses. In the tumble semester, they have been granted accessibility to the new Accomplishing Arts Center on the corner of Ithan and Lancaster Avenues, but the business has experienced issues in the current semester. Andris Lindsay, Dance Enterprise president, spelled out their practical experience last semester compared to this a single. 

“The PAC in the fall was awesome and these a massive upgrade to what we have been made use of to in the basement of St. Mary’s the previous three a long time,” Lindsay reported. “The third ground studio has excellent floors, expansive house, an substantial audio technique, substantial mirrors, home windows and extra. We had been able to have our business dance physically distant and continue to capable to hook up creatively. We have always made the St. Mary’s dance studio do the job in the previous, but in comparison to the new centre it is pretty compact and stuffy, and the flooring are nothing like the new Marley we bought so fortunate to dance on this previous fall.”

In accordance to Villanova’s website, “The John and Joan Mullen Centre for the Undertaking Arts is a hub for performances, creativeness, engagement and exploration for the University’s doing arts local community – enriching Villanova’s campus and improving academic options throughout the College.”

Taking into consideration the time and exertion these artists have invested into their organization, it is challenging for their creativeness to arrive at its entire possible thanks to limited sources. Lindsay also mentioned their present-day situations and the significant adjust in environment for herself and the crew. 

“In the latest semester, we have sadly not been equipped to access the PAC at all for lessons, rehearsals or performances,” Lindsay stated. “We have been working with the St. Mary’s chapel and a tent in the parking good deal on West Campus. Seeking ahead, I am hopeful there can be compromise for the underclassmen to be in a position to use the studio and perhaps theatre in the PAC, as we are the major dance group on campus.” 

As a senior, Lindsay wishes the greatest for her workforce in the upcoming. COVID-19 has impacted the earth in several different techniques, a lack of methods staying a single of them. From luxury studios to a parking lot, the Villanova Dance Company appears forward to modify in its creative and shiny long term.