CWU student dancers and choreographers celebrated over 50 years of dance at CWU with this year’s Orchesis performance, highlighting student passion and creativity on campus. The annual dance concert ran from April 23 to 25 in McConnell Hall’s Milo Smith Tower Theatre.
This year’s show was choreographed by Dance faculty and students, as well as two local guest artists, Jimmy Shields and Emily Schoen Branch.
Orchesis also had two Co-Directors this year: McKenzie Baird, senior lecturer in Dance, and Gabrielle McNellie, associate professor and Dance Program director.
“This season’s production focuses on dreams. What they mean to us, how we interpret them, how they impact our lives,” Baird said. “Each choreographer’s usage of dreams is unique and one of our challenges as Co-Directors was to shape the overall show into a journey for the audience. Over the course of the production, audience members get to experience a wide range of stories and while many are left up to interpretation, we weave subtle clues in our piece titles, quotes, pre-performance music and more to help guide their experiences.”
“The planning phase of this performance began in spring of 2025 with our initial discussions of potential show themes, and how to best highlight the wide array of talent within the company,” Baird continued. “[Student] choreographers audition at the beginning of the season [in fall quarter] with their concept for a piece. They’re required to bring in a sample of the movement, the music, costume concepts, then pitch their piece to the audition committee. Student pieces with a strong concept and clear movement choices are selected to cast and create their pieces. [Then,] we add pieces from our faculty and guest artist pieces.”
The show featured 16 dance pieces with different choreographers, dancers and meanings behind them. Throughout the two-hour show, performers demonstrated moves from various dance styles, featuring numerous genres of music. Contemporary dance techniques were used heavily throughout the show, with a few other styles sprinkled in, such as jazz, ballet, tap and more.
Lady Gaga’s “Abracadabra,” choreographed by Shields, was used to open the show with modern dance, followed by a nautical, ballet-inspired performance of “Wriggle” by Cosmo Sheldrake, choreographed and performed by Emma Tolmich.
Orchesis even paid homage to musical theatre in its piece “What’s Already Yours,” performing “Lullaby of Broadway” from the musical “42nd Street” with classic moves associated with Broadway shows, such as a kick line.
Kennedy Hale, a second-year Dance major, performed in five pieces throughout the night, each with a different choreographer. When discussing one of those pieces, “Madness At Hand,” choreographed by Branch, Hale described the challenges she faced while working on it, “every section feels like a puzzle coming together — fast, detailed, and full of unexpected transitions. The choreography challenges you to stay sharp and fully engaged, because every gesture and every shift matters.”
The lighting design for the show was done with the help of the Theatre Department, where lighting students could use techniques they’d learned in class to enhance the appearance of the dance moves and the costumes onstage. Within “Madness At Hand,” there was even a moment when the characters onstage were laughing at each other, before the lights shone onto the audience, and the characters laughed at them too.
In Baird’s piece, titled “Groovin’,” dancers donned cowboy hats, flannels, jeans and most notably, tap shoes, as they performed “Hey Cowboy” by Devon Cole. Regarding her piece, Baird said, “I knew that I wanted to create a tap piece, and include everyone in the company that taps. From there, this piece grew out of a desire to have fun and do something a little escapist and silly.”
Throughout the show, dancers received cheers and verbal exclamations of awe. During intermission and after the performance was over, several audience members could be overheard talking about how much the show made them cry from the emotional elements of the pieces.
For dance students, Orchesis was not only a showcase of their skills, but also a one to three credit class. When describing what she learned from her experience as a performer in Orchesis, Audree Munson, a third-year Professional and Creative writing major, said, “Sometimes the experiences that scare you the most can end up being the most meaningful and life-changing. This experience pushed me to trust myself and rely on my support system, and once I got past that first step, it really helped me grow.”
