Jazz, hip-hop, lyrical or contemporary dance are the focus of a choreography project in dance classes. Working in groups of two, three or solo, the students must create a dancing ranging from 90 to 120 seconds.

“So, the main purpose of the choreography project is that the students understand how to do a process,” TWU student teacher Stephanie Aceves said. “How to choreograph to music, how to let go, all of the self esteem that goes into it, how to feel free and open, and also how to follow a project all the way from the beginning to the end. So it’s kind of like a follow-through project that also gets your creativity going.”

The dancers are finding ways to express their skills and personality through this assignment says sophomore Vaishnavi Anna.

“It is helping me become a better dancer because I am learning how to actually make art from dancing,” Anna said. “First it was learning technique, but with this project I am able to think how to stitch the elements together and make art.”

The project is helping dancers learn how to improve their skills and execute more quickly and precisely.

“It’s helped me like do the choreography and like get used to doing it fast since we’re doing hip-hop,” sophomore Serena McElroy said. “We can do the choreography faster I guess. And its helped me with muscle memory and everything.”

Aceves has seen her dancers grow during the course of the project and expand their skillset and personality.

“It definitely shows more of their personality,” Aceves said. “And I can definitely see how some groups start off at one point, and then change their choreography to completely something else because maybe one of their group members don’t understand it and for solos you see them expand and it gets harder as the dance goes on.”