Dance company explores art through dance workshops

The African American Dance Company offered students a chance to explore a wide array of dance techniques and styles at its seventh annual workshop Jan. 30 and 31 at the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center. Students were able to learn instruction in Horton and Dunham modern technique, jazz, Afro Cuban, Salsa and African dance. \nLevels varied from beginning to advanced, and students picked the level where they felt most comfortable. The experience fused dance, culture, education, food and conversation into a weekend packed with one-of-a-kind events and opportunities.\n"The workshop began because I felt there was a necessity to expose students to dancers, choreographers and traditions from an African American and African Diaspora perspective," said Iris Rosa, director of the AADC. "That's still important now, but this is also the company's way of giving back to the community."\nRosa said diversity in the arts education was a main goal of the workshop. The event included a panel discussion, allowing the guest artists to share their backgrounds and experience.\nWillie Hinton, a dancer and choreographer from North Carolina, taught jazz classes in the workshop. A mélange of eager bodies filled his classes, but each had one thing in common -- an obvious love for dance. \n"My classes are very athletic, very passionate, very technical," Hinton said. "Basically, we dance. It's about dancing in my classes." \nHinton graduated from the North Carolina School of the Arts and attended the American Dance Festival, an international dance conference. Many of the classes contained a mix of seasoned dancers and those with little or no experience. Hinton didn't place great emphasis around experience.\n"I tell my students that technical ability is essential, but technical ability should never come before passion," Hinton said. "You can't look passion up on the Internet -- no passion fairy says, 'ding,' and gives you passion. It has to come from within." \nHinton also used this analogy to describe the strength dancers must develop. \n"There isn't an ab fairy who says 'ding'," he said.\nHannah Buffington, a freshman at IU-Purdue University Indianapolis, dances in a class which requires she attend the workshop. \n"Jazz was definitely my favorite class," Buffington said. "The guy just made everything fun."\nSenior Kelly Ferdinand, a three-year company member, said she felt the workshop was of benefit to all who participated.\n"This was an opportunity to give something to everybody. It's not necessarily just for dancers," Ferdinand said. "Everyone can learn something new. It's a new experience for dancers, as well, because they are exposed to different styles of dance."\n-- Contact staff writer Stacey Laskin at slaskin@indiana.edu.