The Samford Arts Annual Dance Concert “In The Round” was held in Harrison Theatre Feb. 22-24. Each day’s show was sold out.
Dance Program Coordinator Alisa McCool drew inspiration for the theme from learning about pow wows as a child growing up in Oklahoma.
“The dances performed during a pow wow are typically done in a circle,” she wrote in the show’s program. “The very nature of the circle implies movement.”
The audience sat on the stage of Harrison Theatre, facing the circular spinning stage in the middle.
“One thing Samford Dance Company has never done in the past was having the audience on the stage with us,” dancer Abbey Hammond said. “It really brought a sense of community and closeness we’ve never experienced before. Plus the stage rotated for specific dances and I just thought that was the coolest thing in my 17 years of dancing.”
Every number was completely different from the next in costume, choreography, music and mood. Artists varied from Sleeping At Last to Leonard Cohen to Tchaikovsky and everything in between. The show was also engaging in how it used other mediums, such as sculpture, and even included live performances from Samford’s A Capella Choir and clarinetist Brian Viliunas.
In true pow wow fashion, the audience was invited to join in on the dancing on the circular stage.
The dancers in the show were Sarah Binder, Rachel Blackerby, Grace Brewster, Brittany Chambers, Catherine Cowden, Catherine Craighead, Hayley Earle, Abbey Hammond, Anna Johnson, Anna Kate Medlin, Ashlyn Moody, Ann Parker, Olivia Phipps, Kristina Reynolds, Sammy Solberg, Molly Sullivan, Gracie Walker and Abigail Williams.
Despite this event being within School of the Arts, the dancers themselves came from multiple different schools within Samford, including the Brock School of Business, College of Health Sciences and Orlean Bullard Beeson School of Education.
