Hamilton College’s Student Dance Alliance hosted the Fall 2021 Student Choreography Show, showcasing performances from different dance groups, including Trop Sol, Tap That!, HEAT, Dance Team and Advanced Tap on Saturday, Dec. 4 at 2:00 p.m. The performance took place in the Blood Fitness Center Dance Studio with a live audience, as well as a Zoom link for family and friends watching at home.

Professor Jeff Larson and the Theater Department set up small lights next to the stage wings and allowed each dance captain to choose a color combination to go with their performance. They lit the audience and darkened the stage so that the disco lights would shine effectively on the dancers.

The studio bleachers barely fit everyone, so the audience got creative with seating, filling the staircase leading to the studio and sitting on the floor in front of the bleachers.

The showcase was separated by a ten-minute intermission, in which audience members stretched, used the bathroom and congratulated their friends who performed. To free up space backstage, dancers who only performed in one half of the show sat in the wings for the other. Though they were located in different spots, these dancers maintained the audience’s energy offstage, cheering for the new performers while helping others get ready to perform.

Socks and tights flew in the air as dancers did quick changes in the wings; their peers shielded them from public view and provided a little privacy. The difficult pirouettes, precise leaps and complex tap sounds captivated the audience, as dancers could hear murmurings of shock and disbelief among the crowd during performances.

A few of the groups’ performances, including Student Dance Alliance’s Executive Board’s rendition of

Chicago’s

“Cell Block Tango” and their finale of “Feeling Good,” used props like chairs and the bar. The first performance mimicked the choreography of

Chicago

, with each dancer playing a different criminal in prison.

They danced in and around the chairs, acting out their murder scenes in an artistic, brilliant way. Their second performance of “Feeling Good” was more of a repeat of the SDA showcase last year, but they wanted a chance to perform it in person. Though many audience members had seen this performance from the previous showcase, it was still incredibly well received.

Trop Sol is a Latin, partner dance group that performed three numbers, JR’s “Otro te Besa,” a bachata remix of Dua Lipa’s “New Rules”and “You’re the One that I Want,” the iconic concluding number from the hit musical

Grease

.

The salsa leads played the T-Birds, while the salsa follows played the Pink Ladies, the two groups stood on opposite sides of the dance floor at first, acting out their roles. Then, they partnered up and performed the intricate salsa choreography filled with many lifts and dips. The bachata remix of “New Rules,” in contrast, consisted of only follows, who danced individually and faced forward, a change from the group’s regular partner style.

Tap That!, Hamilton College’s Tap Dance group, danced to a song in the musical

Newsies

called “King of New York.” Before their actual performance, however, the MCs fittingly welcomed the group as “the kings of upstate New York,” a clever play on the song’s title.

All fourteen tap dancers dressed up as different characters from

Newsies

, wearing newsboy caps, flannel shirts and suspenders. Though many members in Tap That! had never tap danced before their first practice early this semester, they still managed to capture every sound in the performance. They switched formations frequently, dancing in a circle and a double V, with everyone squished into the front line for the final pose.

HEAT, Hamilton’s hip-hop group, was the group that provided the most performances with complicated and energetic choreos to songs like Doja Cat’s “Boss Bitch,” Lizzo’s “Truth Hurts,” Stray Kids’ “MIROH” and even a remix of Mozart’s “Lacromisa.” The group provided individual performances for each dancer’s class year to enthusiatic yells, cheers and claps in both the bleachers and the wings, and all HEAT dancers wore black and white shirts emblazoned with the dance group’s iconic logo.

By the end of the showcase, the entire crowd erupted into cheers, and all the dancers could see how their hard work, practice and commitment throughout the semester paid off.