dance

Despite COVID-19 restrictions that have isolated dance students across the globe, Barnard dance classes are in full swing. In their Zoom rectangles, dancers listen to their lectures and clear spaces in their homes for technique classes in disciplines like ballet and modern. In 2018, Barnard still offered tap classes such as Tap Ensemble and Tap as an American Art Form, which were classes that taught beyond the introductory levels of these dance styles. However, tap classes and lectures have disappeared from the Barnard dance course offerings despite still being listed on the Barnard dance department website.

From bedrooms, basements, and backyards across the world, student dancers leapt and swayed to viral music chart toppers with the same contagious enthusiasm as content creators on the titular app in “TikTOrchesis.”

Despite being scattered across the globe, student videographers bridged the gap between dancers in the Columbia University Ballet Ensemble, using digital effects to stitch together a magical forest for the group’s rendition of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” CUBE presented its ballet version of Shakespeare’s play on Dec. 5, featuring befuddled lovers and mischievous fairies dancing across the screen.

With their hairspray in cabinets, fake eyelashes in containers, and poms abandoned in dance bags, members of the Columbia University Dance Team are no longer performing jazz, hip hop, and pom routines for Columbia basketball and football enthusiasts and local sports fans. The team has paused regular practices and events, becoming another source of diminished community at Columbia.

Being rejected by student clubs can be hard, as they are an important part of the college experience. While it’s OK to mourn that, there are also other ways to participate in the community. It’s important to realize that club rejection isn’t personal, and that there are many factors that go into a decision beyond an applicant’s control. With that being said, if you’re in a situation where you are faced with rejection, you might find these tips helpful.

Tap dancers speak their own secret language—and they speak with their feet.

Stages are dark, but the show must go on—virtually, of course. Whether you’re a comedian headed for Saturday Night Live, a future Grammy Awards winner, an aspiring Broadway star, a dancer with killer moves, or someone just looking to join a fun community of student artists, Columbia is a great place to explore the performing arts, even during this unconventional fall semester.

“Swan Lake” is a white ballet.

Trained dancers might believe that dance requires a vast studio space equipped with marley floors and tall mirrors. But today, faced with the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting closure of studio space, dancers across the world are taking first position at makeshift ballet barres in their kitchen or spinning around on tile floors in their socks.

If you take a look in your desk drawers, you may notice objects that have sat there uselessly for months but evoke memories so rich that you are unable to part with them. Choreographer Zoe Novello, BC ’21, sees endless opportunities embedded within these objects, using dance as a means to reconnect with the past through the body.