The Collin Dance Ensemble was selected to perform an original work by a Collin College professor at the gala concert of the American College Dance Association (ACDA) South-Central Region Conference earlier this month. The gala selection was the 11th for the Collin College Dance Department, an unprecedented feat for a community college.
Professor Tiffanee Arnold’s HIVE was selected for the gala concert in a blind adjudication process where the adjudicators know only the title of the dance and the year that it was choreographed. Thirty-nine dances, choreographed by faculty, students, and guest artists, and performed by students ranging from community colleges to universities with graduate programs, were submitted for adjudication. Of those 39 dances, 11 were selected for the gala concert.
The piece was performed by the Collin Dance Ensemble, 16 of whom traveled with Arnold, Professor Meghan Cardwell-Wilson, and Associate Dean Courtney Mulcahy to the conference at Sam Houston State University, March 6-9.
The adjudicators remarked that Arnold’s choreography featured “a beautiful tableau of bodies – stunning” and a soloist “plucked out and framed – stellar – on an elevated platform.” The Collin Dance Ensemble was commended for their “agility and dexterity” and ability to become the image within the dance.
Student Kay Fisher also presented her choreography, Opalescent, and adjudicators remarked on its “sense of architecture and design” and “well-rehearsed and tightly produced” quality. In addition to performing in the adjudicated and gala concerts, students also performed Emily Boone’s 13:8 in the informal concert.
Each day students took four dance master classes and experienced two full-length dance concerts. Feedback sessions provided an opportunity for students to hear the adjudicators’ feedback on each work in the concert, and a transfer fair allowed students to hear faculty from universities speak about their dance departments and share resources.
Cardwell-Wilson and Mulcahy presented/taught master classes for conference participants. Along with Arnold, they also participated in dance master classes as professional development.
Arnold played a significant role in the conference, as she is in her fifth year as regional director of the ACDA South-Central Conference.