With pieces featuring African dance, hip hop, modern, tap, and jazz, UCDC’s Dancing Stories: Weaving Time production is set for April 25-27th. These pieces are all about telling stories through dance, as the Ursinus College Dance Company (UCDC) explores tales of grief, colonization, the unknown, and more.
Two students, Izabella Entrekin ’26 and Gabriella Price ’25, both have stories they choreographed themselves featured in the show, entitled “Into the Maze of Night” and “Defeat.” Price called the ending of hers up to the audience’s interpretation, with Olivia Lesinski ’26 adding that this allows “the audience to portray their own experiences” through the character.
Lesinski plays the protagonist in “Defeat,” amongst a cast of characters, and dances in three other pieces. A Dance and Environmental Science double major, this is her fourth UCDC show. She says dance at Ursinus is “nothing like what [she] expected it to be” but “in the best way possible.” “I have been exposed to numerous opportunities that have helped shape what my future with dance might look like! And it makes me really excited,” she said. “Defeat” is certainly a highlight of the show for her, but she added that every part was so “fantastic” it is difficult to choose just one. She said “Having a role like this is something I have always dreamed of, and I am so excited to be able to portray Gabby’s vision onto the stage.” Lesinski tells the audience to “be prepared for all of the emotional differences between the pieces… there are moments where we are expressing grief, and others where we are having an exciting celebration!”
For Dayna Milner ’24, this both her first and last UCDC performance, as soon she will graduate and enter medical school at Western Illinois University on a full-ride. A self-initiated Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies major and a Bonner Leader and Intern, she decided to explore dance. “I wish I would’ve started earlier,” she said, and said she was glad she “had the opportunity to dance [her] last semester out.” Milner dances in “From Colonization to Carnival,” the African dance piece.
Dr. Clemente “C” said that she is excited to share this show, especially because “usually in the individual story we can find the universal.” To see these performances, be sure to go to the Lenfest Theater April 25th-27 at 7:30pm.