As the clock hits 3:45 on a Tuesday afternoon, M’kaela Riley ‘26, rushes into the dance studio for rehearsal. But she does not find an instructor, about to start practice. Instead, she takes her place at the front of the room to start her own rehearsal. 

Each spring, the Masters Dance Company (MDC) spotlights student choreographers in the advanced dance classes. This year, Ari Melnick ‘26, Kate Anderson ‘27, Kaela Riley ‘26, Susie Brown ‘27, Marcella deSpirito ‘27, Maria Milkov ‘27, and Alyssa Kim ‘28 served as the choreographers.    

“I actually inherited that structure, that it was guest artists choreographers in the fall and then spring with student choreographers,” said Upper School Dance Teacher Melissa Edwards. “However, when I have started dance companies in other schools, I did that as well. It’s important that not only are students having to bring the vision of somebody else forward, but they should be able to start synthesizing their own thoughts on their artistic voice.” 

She continued, “I think it’s really amazing to watch students create their own choreography and then teach it to the other students and lead those rehearsals.”

This spring, students spent the season working on their showcase “Mood Point,” a collection of dances which featured a medley of emotions, ranging from nostalgia and melancholy to joy and stability. The showcase also included a variety of dance styles such as hiphop, contemporary, ballet, and lyrical.

“My process starts mostly from the song. There’s some music where I hear it, and I just see movement or I see a spark of an idea, and I think that’s kind of where my process starts,” said Kate Anderson ‘27, one of the student choreographers. 

She continued  “I think the process [also] has a lot to do with also the dancers, seeing somebody move to what you’re saying, and they move in a certain way that maybe you weren’t originally intending, but comes through in its own beautiful way, and I think it’s really important to not just have a certain set movements that you’re giving these dancers, but also taking into account what it looks like on actual body.”

Susie Brown ‘27 also commented on how this process has shaped her artistic vision, “I think there is often this pressure that I kind of put on myself to make amazing work that will like shock people and be new and be something different, and I think, especially when I compare my work this year to my work last year, I’ve actually made something more astounding by releasing the pressure of feeling like it has to be like that, because last year I loved my piece and I thought it was amazing, but I do think that a lot of my process did revolve around this idea that, like, it had to be something more than what it was. And this year, by just allowing my art to unravel as it did, I was able to make something much more authentic to how I hope to create.”