Department of Dance Education Concerts Serve Hundreds Each Year

Not every performance in Robinson Hall’s Belk Theater has the audience up and dancing at their seats. But the Department of Dance’s education concert is not your typical program, and the 300 students who have come to see it are not your typical audience.

They are middle and high schoolers representing, on this mid-November day, nine different schools from Charlotte-Mecklenburg and as far away as China Grove and Clover, South Carolina. As they file out of yellow school buses – some wearing dance skirts and sparkly sweaters, others in jeans and sweatshirts – they already seem excited, posing for pictures with their classmates, filling the lobby of Robinson Hall with the din of anticipation.

“For our students, this is the best audience,” said Assistant Professor of Dance Education Marissa Nesbit. “It’s a full house of people who are genuinely engaged.”

The dance department presents an education concert every semester, inviting area public school dance educators to bring their students free of charge. It is an extraordinary contribution to the community, said Nesbit, who leads the initiative.

“Viewing and responding to dance is part of the North Carolina standards. Live dance in a theater is not always super accessible, so providing this is a way that our public school partners can make this accessible for their students.”

 “Live dance in a theater is not always super accessible, so providing this is a way that our public school partners can make this accessible for their students.”

Assistant Professor of Dance Education Marissa Nesbit

For many of the students, Nesbit said, the education concert is their first live dance experience and their first time on a college campus.

“Getting to have that connection with the University is important,” Nesbit said. “Some groups do a campus tour before or after the show.”

Taking place on the Friday morning of each fall and spring dance concert weekend, the education programs present the same repertoire that the dancers perform in their public concerts.

“We don’t dumb it down,” Nesbit said, “and we don’t choreograph specifically for the kids. So how do we frame it for them?”

Context comes through colorful, instructive slides and lively presentations from the UNC Charlotte student performers who introduce each piece.

At the most recent education concert in November, dance education major Maddie Worsley walked out on stage to earsplitting cheers from students at East Mecklenburg High School, where she was doing her student teaching. Serving as the program emcee, she gave pointers on how to be a good audience member before inviting dancers to the stage to introduce the first piece.

Within minutes, they had the audience on its feet, learning a movement that would appear in the choreography. Arms flew up and down, torsos twisted, heads dropped in a bow. The crowd gave itself a hearty round of applause before sitting, and when the performances began, the claps and cheers continued.

“Students and children are the loudest and greatest audience you can feed off of,” said dance education major Chase McLean, who introduced and performed in the final piece on the program (above, right). “Hearing them, they love it, and this makes me want to try harder and push harder.”

McLean did not take field trips to performances when she was in school.

“As a teacher-in-training, I think it’s a great experience for students.”

McLean said she especially appreciates the “amazing exposure” to the “diversity in dance expressions” demonstrated in the concert. The November program included tango-inspired choreography, a West African-based work, contemporary/modern movement, and neoclassical ballet on pointe.

“From a curriculum standpoint, they can see a little bit of everything,” said Nesbit.

After the concert, the performers and stage crew sat on the edge of the stage and took questions from the audience. There were questions about having a double major, memorizing dance steps, making mistakes in performance. When one dance major talked about her lifelong love of dance, fingers snapped in solidarity. And when one student asked, “Is it true the energy from the crowd powers all of you?” the performers answered with a resounding “yes!”

“Every concert I’ve been to with my students they have always enjoyed,” said Calvin Coleman ’22 (pictured below). Now the dance educator at Sedgefield Middle School, Coleman used to perform in the department’s concerts when he was at UNC Charlotte.

“My students always find a dancer or a specific performance that they really enjoy. The Q&A section is also one of their favorites. I just enjoy hearing them talk about it on our way back on the bus.”

In March, the department will present a special spring concert at the Carolina Theatre in uptown Charlotte. The education concert will take place there on Friday, March 27, at 11 a.m. Coleman plans to be there.

“I think it’s an amazing thing that the dance department does for the students.”

Photos by Toby Schuetze and Kat Lawrence.