A college version of Footloose currently rages across campus. As studios close and restrictions tighten, regular rehearsal spaces for student dance groups are becoming harder to find, to the frustration of the Northwestern dance community.
With only three official dance studios on campus, these dance groups have had a rough year trying to find – and keep – regular space to rehearse their routines. More and more often, these groups are forced to dance in places like gyms, empty classrooms and even hallways.
Two years ago, Patten closed its only dance studio. Competition for all other dance spaces quickly skyrocketed.
“They tore out that studio space and changed it to an extension of the lacrosse team’s locker room,” said Julia Anaya, one of Fusion’s Dance Company managers and a Communication senior. “So that was the first big frustration, because that eliminated a key space for us.”
Patten’s dance studio also had a crucial feature that many campus rehearsal spaces lack: mirrors. Without mirrors, dancers can’t get a 360-degree view of the choreographers’ moves.
“If we’re teaching new choreography, obviously people can’t see you very well,” Anaya said. “Pretty much everything we do without mirrors, we have to do again with mirrors.”
To help alleviate dancers’ frustration, representatives from campus dance groups recently met with administrative heads from the Center for Student Involvement and SPAC. They discussed rules, as well as future plans. Reactions to the meeting were mixed. Some believed the meeting was a good first step, while others came away feeling unheard.
“I feel like Northwestern likes to make it seem like it’s very accommodating for all undergrads,” said Aalap Herur-Raman, a McCormick junior and president of ANUBhav, a Bollywood dance group. “To a certain degree that’s true, and to a certain degree I do get that feeling that the administration’s like, ‘Well, if you don’t like what’s here, I’m sorry. Nothing’s gonna change.’ That’s not really the attitude students want to feel, coming from a place where they spend four or five years.”
The Theatre and Interpretation Center (TIC) is often a dance groups’ first choice for space, thanks to its mirrored spaces. However, keeping a reservation is tricky. Theater groups and dance classes have higher priority than campus dance groups, so these groups can lose their reservations at any time. Often, groups won’t know until the night of, which leads to some last-minute scrambling.
“It’s a lot of tension for everyone, and getting the word out to everyone is also very difficult,” said Jolo Aguilar, a McCormick senior and president of ReFresH Dance Crew. “We send emails, Facebook, group texts, but still some people don’t get reached, and it causes delays in our practices.”
Anaya said Fusion is often forced to relocate to empty conference rooms in Norris. They must rearrange tables and use the darkened windows as replacements for mirrors.
Compared to other groups, dancing in Norris sounds normal. Boomshaka holds regular practice in a Kresge classroom. Precious practice time is always lost, as members must always move the desks out of the way. But that’s not their biggest problem.
“The main problem with rehearsing in Kresge is that we’re not exactly quiet when we’re rehearsing,” said Evan Gray, a Boomshaka member and McCormick sophomore. “We’re producing a lot of noise. We don’t want to disturb people as much as they don’t want to be disturbed, but it’s often unavoidable.”
Boomshaka often ends up moving practice into other classrooms because other people in Kresge will complain. What will Boomshaka do next year, when Kresge is closed for construction?
“We have no idea, and we are a little terrified about that,” Gray said.
SPAC, which has mirrors on the sides of its basketball courts and where many groups try to schedule rehearsal, has caused particular contention. Betty Scott, SPAC’s Director, attended that meeting, where she met many dance group heads for the first time.
“The main issue with trying to get space for dance groups is the lack of space that we have,” Scott said. “We get requests for all kinds of space, not just for dancing practice. We have priorities: recreational space is number one, our own programs, club programs, then dance programs.”
To reserve space in SPAC, dancers must email Scott their reservation time preferences. Unfortunately, according to Scott, most people want the same time, which is impossible to schedule.
“We’d love to fill our facility up with stuff in the daytime because those courts just go empty,” Scott said.
There are other rules for reservations. Unless they check with a supervisor, dancers are not allowed to simply walk on and use an empty court. Scott also cannot schedule two groups on the same court at the same time due to insurance issues. In addition, she doesn’t schedule dance groups at the same time as SPAC’s recreational classes because she says the two groups’ music will clash.
“They should give us the benefit of the doubt,” Herur-Raman said. “If we’re told to turn down our music, we will … We just want to use whatever space we can.”
At the meeting between dance groups and administrators, changes were announced for next year to help cut down on competition for space. Scott plans to introduce a new reservation system, which would be based on a lottery to give every group equal practice time. In addition, once construction is completed, SPAC will have two new mirrored studios that dance groups will be welcome to use.
Anaya said SPAC administrators admitted they did not know how large Northwestern’s dance community is. They did not realize many dance groups are ASG-recognized groups that perform at Northwestern and Evanston events, as well as compete in outside competitions.
“That was a relief because we were just like, ‘Why are we not getting anywhere with our fight for more space?’ Anaya said. “So it did get us more on the same page, and we are a little bit more hopeful about next year.”