In an effort to feed much-needed money into the Dance Arts Society’s semesterly show, the organization brought in various choreographers from across the country for a two-day convention.
The convention began two years ago with 2013 DAS President Jenni Weeks and Vice President Will Jardell.
“I just wanted Dance Arts to not struggle every semester to put on their show, because that’s really what it is — it’s a struggle,” Weeks said. “Renting out Rudder is ridiculous, it’s like 5 grand just to rent out Rudder [because] we have rehearsals and then the show.”
Weeks said before the convention, if local dancers wanted to learn from celebrity choreographers or find inspiration they would have to travel to Dallas or Houston.
“By bringing a convention here, there’s 14 dance studios in College Station, so it allows kids in small town to have a big town convention without having to pay for hotel and gas and all that stuff,” Weeks said.
The convention is not just for students in studios around the area, but college students as well. Anyone who wanted to participate had the chance to do so.
“The best part of Dance Aggieland, I think [is] just getting all the kids in the community, no matter what age, to come in and dance as a group,” said Taylor McIntosh, DAS member. “You have different companies and stuff and they have their own style, but then when you bring it all together and get new choreographers, it’s a chance for them to learn new stuff and I think it’s great to be able to do that.”
This is the third year of Dance Aggieland and Vice President Paige Parker said the choreographers brought in are chosen to get people excited for the convention.
“We actually had Joshua Allen from ‘So You Think You Can Dance,’ he won season four, he was going to be teaching, but because of the inclement weather, his flight was cancelled and there were no flights flying from L.A. to Texas, so he could not be here, unfortunately,” Parker said.
Parker said in college, dancers don’t really get the chance to just take class anymore and the Dance Aggieland convention is here to improve dancing while having fun.
To get the dancers pumped back up after lunch Saturday, junior Yell Leaders Ben Ritchie and Zach Lawrence taught and led three yells and then stretched with the dancers.
“At first, I was kinda like, freaking out because I’ve never talked to that many girls before, but it was fun and I enjoyed it,” Ritchie said.
Weeks said there are a lot of great things about Dance Aggieland but she likes that by having this smaller convention, everyone has room to dance and even get one-on-one instruction from the choreographer, something that does not happen at the major conventions.
“They get a lot more out of a convention like this, than they do at a bigger convention like Pulse or Jump,” Weeks said. “And it’s not as scary to them. It’s so intimidating when you’re in a room with 500 people, so I love that part about it that it’s more homey kind of.”