The Swamp Dance Fest wants to get dancers moving – for a whole month.
UF’s College of the Arts’ Swamp Dance Fest started Monday and will run through Aug. 3. It is a four-week dance intensive for preprofessional and professional dancers ages 16 and above.
It is being held at the UF School of Theatre and Dance in the G-6 studio in the Nadine M. McGuire Theatre and Dance Pavilion and will be directed by choreographer and filmmaker Tiffany Rhynard.
The program has a different structure every year, according to Whitney Wilson, 25, program assistant and choreographer. Different choreographers come from around the world to work with participants to create new dance works.
This is the fourth year of Swamp Dance Fest, but it used to be a summer dance class that was just offered to UF students, she said. Now, it is a festival that is open to dancers outside of UF.
She said the number of participants in the past have varied between 25 and 40. This year there are 27 participants.
There are several different public events associated with the festival starting with the faculty performance at the Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art, she said. It will be held today from 6 to 9 p.m. and will feature original dance works from all the faculty members.
“There will be open, public showings every Friday during the festival,” Wilson said. “We will show the dances from the festival and the community can see how they grow through the festival.”
The festival will also hold open artist talks that are free to the public on July 14, 17, 21 and 24 in the G-6 studio at 7 p.m., she said. Artist talks give participants and community members the chance to learn about the careers of the choreographers.
She also said there will be open community classes held July 12, 19 and 26 in G-6 at 11 a.m.
These classes are free to the public and focus on different dance techniques such as partnering, dance jam and an introduction to making classes and doing choreography.
The festival culminates with the Swamp Dance Fest Premier Performances, which will be the debut of what was worked on for the whole month, Wilson said. The performances will be held in G-6 July 31 through Aug. 2 at 7 p.m. and Aug. 3 at 2 p.m.
“The Swamp Dance Fest is a pretty transformative experience for participants,” Wilson said. “Each week they work with a different teacher that is teaching a different technique, and they are working pretty intimately with these professionals so it helps build relationships with professionals currently working in the field.”
Aisha Lilah, 33, a professional dancer and UF contemporary dance performance alumna said she has learned several things from participating in last year’s Swamp Dance Fest.
She said the discipline of dancing eight-plus hours a day, the encouragement and nurturing of creative lab or the space available to work on personal choreography and Friday showings to share work in progress have helped her as a professional dancer. Participating and witnessing several professors’ methods and style of communicating technique and choreography also helped, she said.
Lilah said she enjoyed company class where all members of the festival take class together the first half of the day then split off into separate rehearsals for the second part of the day.
“I really loved the spirit of the Swamp Dance Festival,” Lilah said. “The instructors and the students made the experience special.”
[A version of this story ran on page 8 on 7/10/2014 under the headline "Summer dance intensive starts up"]
UF’s College of Arts will host Swamp Dance Fest, which brings together dancers to train in contemporary techniques with renowned choreographers from around the country.
