Swamp Dance Fest, a four-week summer dance intensive offered at UF’s G-6 Studio, will end this week with performances developed throughout the program.
Dancers will be challenged in rigorous classes, including modern, improvisation and composition, said Trent Williams, this year’s Swamp Dance Fest director.
Williams, an assistant professor of dance at UF, said the majority of participants are incoming freshmen pursuing bachelor’s degrees in dance or students currently enrolled in UF’s dance program. Some students travel from other universities to take part in the program.
Twenty dancers are participating this year, and those who are UF students will receive three credits, said Kevin Austin, an academic advisor for UF’s College of the Arts.
Dancers are able to interact and collaborate with guest artists, from whom they learn technique and how to explore creativity through choreography.
This year’s festival features two guest artists: Duane Cyrus, an associate professor at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and JoAnna Mendl Shaw, a long-standing choreographer and educator.
Jennifer Klammer, a 19-year-old participant, said she’s had a wonderful experience and has learned a great deal from the guest artists.
“I’ve been working a lot with Duane,” she said. “He bases his choreography off of our movement, and I really like that process. It lets our voices as artists come out.”
In addition to dancers developing their technical skills, they will experience various special projects.
Dancers will hear about the guest artists’ careers, people who they’ve worked with in the industry and how they made it as artists in today’s dance field, Williams said.
Williams said the program is also a great networking ground for students once they have left the program.
“A lot of our students go to New York and choreograph later on, or do their own work as well as work with guest artists who were part of Swamp Dance Fest with them,” Williams said.
Dancers in the festival create works performed by students and guests.
“The culminating performance showcases what the students have learned throughout the Summer, as well as share with their parents and friends the repertory that they’ve learned during the four weeks of being in this intensive,” Williams said.
The final performances will be held Friday to Sunday at the McGuire Pavilion Black Box Theatre.
Tickets can be purchased from the UF Box Office. Tickets are $13 for UF students, $15 for staff and faculty and $18 for community members, according to UF’s College of the Arts.
Klammer, a dance and journalism sophomore, said she hopes people who attend the final performance learn dance is more actively thought out instead of just movement.
“Dancers are active thinkers, not just robots who kick, step, turn,” she said.
