FIU dance students were supposed to perform today, but coronavirus took center stage

By: Victor Jorges / News Director

Under normal circumstances, 11 dance students were supposed to perform their choreographies that they had been working on for months today.

However, after the university practically paralyzed on-campus functions, they had to resort to an alternative way to show their work.

Emae Schlotterbeck was one of these students. She is a psychology major, minoring in dance studies. 

She told PantherNOW that about 11 dancers collaborated with six musicians from FIU to present art in the form of dance. It was all a collaborative effort with the Frost Art Museum at FIU. Each dancer would choose a piece of art from the museum, and a music compositor would do the same. 

She says that each performer had a different theme. Some of the dances would symbolize factors of human life like sisterhood, others about situations like resource scarcity in Africa. 

“All are very different themes based on the piece of art chosen from the museum,” she said. “Mine is about the anxiety and stress caused by war and climate change.”

The artists started working in the beginning of February, and she says many hours of each week were devoted to the art.

“More than practiced, we created this work ourselves,” said Schlotterbeck. “It was not a choreography by the professor, but something we worked in choreographing and collaborating with the music student.”

She won’t be able to show her performance in the fall, which would be an alternative that many spring events at FIU are resorting to. She will be living in California by then. 

“I graduate this semester and I will go to a graduate school there,” she said. 

The alternative that the artists and their professor came up with is filming their dances and streaming their hours of work that way. She tries to stay optimistic during this difficult time.

“Nonetheless, I am still happy we can videotape our dance, rather than letting all the work get lost,” she said.

Schlotterbeck was dancing alone, but she says that other groups are having a more difficult time adjusting to the transition. 

“ I also know many dance classmates who are having an even harder time because they are doing a duet – two people are dancing,” she said. “We have been told by our professor, we cannot meet with other students. Hence, those classmates need to videotape their performance separately.”