Students around the community are warming up for the Columbus Summer Dance Festival, a two-week dance academy hosted by the Ohio State Department of Dance from June 15 to 27.
In its second year, the festival offers a full schedule of classes that allow students to explore different areas of dance including modern, ballet, hip-hop and yoga.
Jane Ledford-Adkins, the assistant to the chair in the Department of Dance, said the schedule is "intense" to allow students the opportunity to "dance all day, every day."
"The festival gives dancers the experience to dance at OSU in the summer," said Shea Williams, a junior in dental hygiene.
This year, the festival will include guest artists from New York City and Mansfield, Ohio.
"One of the benefits is to provide our students and students in the community with other exposure from outside of the university," Ledford-Adkins said.
Another new element to the festival will be the inclusion of high school students, ages 16 to 18, who have had prior dance training.
"Our hope is that they are going to get exposure to the university and higher education in general," Ledford-Adkins said.
The Department of Dance is planning for 50 to 75 student dancers to enroll for the festival. The festival will be held in Sullivant Hall.
Improvisation "dance jams" will take place on The Oval as part of the festival. Anyone interested in dancing is invited to take place in the "jams," Ledford-Adkins said.
The public is also invited to performances June 24 and June 27, both at 8 p.m., in the Sullivant Hall Theatre. Students will share the dance experiences they have had throughout the camp and guest artists will be performing solos in their specialties.
More information about the Columbus Summer Dance Festival and instructions to register can be found at the Department of Dance's Web site, dance.ohio-state.edu.
Katherine Witzman can be reached at witzman.2@osu.edu.
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