Dancing to a Different Tune: Concert Features Live Music and Dance
Photo by A. Pierce Bounds '71.
Dickinson musicians, guest artist enhance student choreography, dance
by MaryAlice Bitts-Jackson
When students in Dickinson’s Applied Choreography class created new pieces for this year’s Freshworks concert, they had plenty of fresh inspiration to draw on. In addition to creative lighting and costumes designed by fellow students, the 2025 Freshworks is also invigorated by the work of contributing guest artists.
The concert showcases choreography by Delaney Bloom ’27 (dance & music, educational studies), Juli Bursztyn ’25 (dance, biochemistry & molecular biology), Alethea Cladis ’25 (quantitative economics), Kenton Hollander ’26 (educational studies), Caroline Meyer ’25 (environmental studies), Jane Stewart ’27 (educational studies, English), Melina Tseckares ’25 (educational studies, dance) and Anna Wilson ’27 (psychology, dance). It runs Friday, April 25, and Saturday, April 26, at 7 p.m. and Sunday, April 27, at 2 p.m. in Mathers Theatre. Donation-based tickets, starting at $5, must be reserved.
Guest artists in the house!
Jungeun Kim, a dancer-educator (University of the Arts, Amherst College) from Philadelphia, is among the esteemed guest-artists. During her on-campus residency, funded by a major gift, Kim partnered with Associate Professor of Dance Sarah Skaggs to assist the student-choreographers as they learned to translate an idea into movement and construct, refine and rehearse their work.
Thanks to efforts by Bloom, whose major bridges the music and dance departments, the 2025 dance concert also includes live performances by Dickinson musicians. Bloom’s choreography explores the nature of grief and is danced to Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings, famously featured during the funeral of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and after President John F. Kennedy’s assassination and the attacks of Sept. 11. It will be performed live by a cello ensemble led by Michael Cameron, contributing faculty in music. Meyer’s piece will be accompanied by Schubert’s soaring “Ave Maria,” performed by Emilio Gurany ’25 (music, history).
Topical themes
The student-choreographers also use recorded music to great effect, with selections ranging from 1990s pop to classical to ambient and experimental electronic. Growing up in Buenos Ares, Bursztyn was energized by her mom’s favorite music—the top-40 hits of the Y2K era. She created a playful work to channel that vintage-Madonna energy. In contrast, Stewart’s reflection on eating disorders is set to the timeless Vivaldi classic “The Four Seasons.”
Additional topics selected by the student-choreographers include nostalgia, facades, religion, rage and communication. Wilson’s “Hiraeth” refers to a Welsh word meaning “homesickness for a place one can never return to—or a place that never truly existed.” “Mine,” choreographed by Hollander, delves into the aspects of ourselves we show to the world and those we hide. Tseckares’ senior project, “Good Grief,” examines how the body stores heartache and works through trauma.
All of these pieces represent issues of interest and concern to their creators—and many hours of revision and collaboration to bring them to life.
“It’s been an incredible experience,” says Bloom, “and it’s taken a lot of hard work. But it will all be worth it in the end!”
Learn about the 2024 Freshworks concert.
View more upcoming events in the Calendar of Arts.
TAKE THE NEXT STEPS
Published April 24, 2025