Logan Center Co-Creation Grant 2022-23

neXus Dance Collective

THE PROJECT

Mural of Dance commits itself to creating a dance experience that breaks the mold of genres and engages dancers and viewers not only opt-in to, but help to shape.

A project first in its kind for neXus Dance Collective, Mural of Dance creates a Create-Your-Own Dance adventure divided into segments: Mural I and Mural II. Mural I encapsulated the impactful stylings of girls’ hip hop coupled with the powerful and intense-driven movement of boys’ hip hop with light melodies and dynamic-driven choreography. Mural II shifted the focus to a contemporary flare coupled with groove, modern, ballet, and high-energy dance compositions. Both Mural I and II included members of neXus Dance Collective’s diverse lineup of over 100 dancers and dances choreographed outside of neXus.

Coupling the numerous dance styles leveraged and fostering community, neXus Dance Collective presented 13 neXus-based dances and 12 dances affectionately known as ‘friendship dances’. For many of our ‘friendship dancers’, dances both within neXus and outside of neXus committed their efforts and time to undergo an application process to ensure their preparation. The event was open to the UChicago community as well as known UChicago students and garnered over 130 attendees.

THE PEOPLE

Beverly Batts

4th Year, Public Policy, Human Rights
I joined neXus Dance Collective as a first year student. It was my first dance crew that I joined after attending University of Chicago.
In particular, as someone who had not danced for a while before attending university, I was thankful that the no-cut policy allowed me a chance to become reacquainted with dance again. While specifically working with K-Pop dance, the art is informed by contemporary, hip hop, jazz, and modern dance influences. This versatility allows for neXus to offer a wide variety of dances in styles and also the different textures required for dances. Moreover, the dances are primarily divided into solo artists, girl group, boy group, and co-ed.
Regardless of ability and dancing background, everyone has the opportunity to participate in the dance(s) of their choosing. Being able to participate in neXus has given me the confidence to engage with an art form that I have not previously been able to engage with.
As a result, I hope that neXus can continue to expand and bring more awareness to dance on campus.

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THE PARTS

Dance can not be confined to inner circles, so neXus aimed to blur the lines between dance, selectivity, and form.

neXus Dance Collective was able to create a collaborative environment thanks to the Logan Co-Creation Grant. Dance is unity. Dance can not be confined to inner circles, so neXus aimed to blur the lines between dance, selectivity, and form. The event lasted for 2 hours on Tuesday, May 9, 2023 included 25 dances of various styles and concepts. While 25 dances in theory sounds very large, it is normal for neXus to organize 10 to 14 dances at the University of Chicago each quarter. In order to expand our dance community to those outside of neXus (and those who are neXus-adjacent), we provided an application process where interested University of Chicago students and University of Chicago community could submit their own dances and contribute to our Mural of Dance.
We were able to welcome various concepts that are both familiar to K-Pop stans and unfamiliar to the general public. Ranging from bubble gum pop, hard-hitting hip hop, sensual contemporary, to riveting groove, our Mural of Dance coalesced thanks to dancers, the production team, and the audience attendees to create a dance adventure.
Logan Center contributed to the overall ambiance of the show: we were able to show our appreciation not only for the dancers but also our audience. The supplementation of catering and the ability to host in the Logan space provided the necessary opportunity to elevate our prior performances of dance and give more recognition to all of our stakeholders.
The grant contributed to the experimentation of the show given its unique approach to promoting dance and incorporating community.By engaging with various stakeholders, receiving continuous feedback from the Logan staff, current neXus members, and those outside of neXus, the show was able to function as a product of both neXus, general members’ efforts, and Logan’s efforts. Furthermore, the narrative of Mural of Dance illustrated our diverse interests while simultaneously creating a higher level of performance, and a rich environment of ideas.

THE PROCESS

The first inklings of the process began following the Logan Co-Creation grant was bestowed onto neXus Dance Collective. Immediately after, we opened up a dance interest form where members of neXus’s community could suggest songs of interest and share them with neXus teachers to contribute their own murals of dance. Beginning in the first week of Spring Quarter, 13 dancers including over 60 unique neXus dancers traveled to Ida Noyes’s Basement Dance Room to put their blood, sweat, and tears onto the dance floor. Through a round of dance sorting, various dances were allocated to dancers based on their preferences given the overall style, stage presence, and emotion of the dance. Practices averaged 2 hours sometimes with 3 dances in a single dance room sharing a space. At times, it was difficult to hear music with so many different eight-counts being taught and different beats, but it brought us closer together. This created a greater sense of community and several neXus members began to make new friendships in order to embark on the dance journey together. Soon after, we released a form for dancers to submit their own individual dancers (both within and outside of neXus).

Once the dances began, teachers of dancers were encouraged to think about what costumes would suit the concept of their song. Some songs took on a twin concept – meaning dancers were intended to mirror each other’s fluidity –, other performances personified the thrill of first love, heartbreak, and youth, while others embodied teenage angst.

In order to prepare for the performance, neXus leveraged its various teams: stage managers, emcees, video crew, styling, the dance team, executive board, teachers, and finance team to make sure that the various moving parts were cohesive and integrated. Ahead of time, a show draft was created, teachers and dancers were sent technical materials including lighting preferences, and an emcee script was created to create a comprehensive flow from one's own pictorial of dance to another.

Candy - NCT Dream
Practicing in the Logan Center’s Courtyard

Bae - Hyolon
Practice #1

Girl Group Medley
Talk That Talk

ACTIVATION

neXus’s Mural of Dance included 25 individual dance works, split across two “murals,” presented on May 9, 2023, in the Logan Center Performance Hall. The audience was encouraged to take photographs during the show and submit them to the Mural of Dance fansite. Those photos are included below.