‘A Great Opportunity For Young People’: Dance Program To Host Regional High School Dance Festival, March 13-16

High school students from across the country will visit Texas A&M University for the Regional High School Dance Festival March 13-16.

Hosted by the College of Performance, Visualization and Fine Arts’ Dance Science program, students from 27 high schools from Texas, Florida, Alabama, Pennsylvania, Colorado and Wisconsin will get to experience what the program has to offer.

Carisa Armstrong, M.F.A., associate professor, said she is excited the university is hosting the event for the second time. About 500 students are set to attend.

“They get to see what it’s like to interact with college dance professors in their classes,” Armstrong said. “They get to be on a college campus and kind of run around and feel what that’s like, and it’s really for those students and the experiences they get to have.”

Over the course of four days, students will be immersed in the dance culture of Texas A&M as they attend classes, workshops, lectures, rehearsals and performances.

To kick off the festival, an audition process will be held for students seeking admission to college programs or summer intensives with recruiters from schools and companies across the country, Armstrong said. Students may be offered scholarships, she said.

The workshops and classes will be taught by visiting faculty, high school teachers, guest lecturers from summer programs and faculty from the college. Armstrong said the classes cover an array of dance styles and genres.

“We have also hired musicians to accompany classes throughout the week,” she said. “So that’s a unique component we have, and it increases the energy for students because they get to rehearse with live music.”

An opening concert will be held on Friday, March 13, with a performance by Social Movement Contemporary Dance Theatre, a Houston-based company created by Elijah Alhadji Gibson, M.F.A., assistant professor.

Two concerts will be held on Saturday, March 14: a Student Choreography Showcase with works choreographed by high school students, and an evening showcase concert with works by guest artists and faculty from the schools. A panel of professionals will choose works for first, second and third place for the Student Choreography Showcase. Armstrong said first place includes a monetary award for the student.

An afternoon concert will be held on Sunday, March 15, with works by students, guest artists and faculty. The Gala Concert will be that evening, featuring works selected by a panel of dance professionals.

“The gala is the most prestigious concert,” Armstrong said. “Those are the works that the adjudication panel felt were the best performed and choreographed from the over 50 submissions that we received.”

The festival concludes Monday, March 16, with an awards ceremony for scholarships and acceptance to dance and summer programs based on first-day auditions.

Armstrong said she hopes this experience sparks a new passion in students to imagine how dance could be a part of their future.

“Coming into a festival like this, where your experiences can be really wide and you can be exposed to many people that you may have never even heard of before — I think it’s a great opportunity for young people,” she said. “The high school teachers are very excited about this connection between higher education and high schools, because they are in a transitional step for their students. It’s a special thing to see their excitement for their students and the opportunities they are going to be opened up to.”

All performances are open to the public in Rudder Auditorium. Tickets are $6 at the MSC Box Office.

For more information and schedules, visit the Regional High School Dance Festival website.