Southern Utah University’s department of theatre, dance, and arts administration attended the annual American College Dance Association West-Desert conference in Laramie, WY on March 26. Before departing for the conference, the students presented an informal showing of their works on Monday, March 24.
ACDA strives to encourage college dance students to grow in talent and creativity. Multiple ACDA conferences take place across the country, divided into 11 distinct regions.
“ACDA is really a chance for college students to come together to see what is taking place across the nation in college dance, the chance to network for students, to practice taking class and performing with one another, and then also a chance to get back and celebrate the work that each university does,” said dance professor Halie Bahr.
SUU brought two works to the ACDA conference. The first, choreographed by Bahr, is titled “Something Bright, then Blue.” Bahr took inspiration for the piece from Vietnamese-American poet Ocean Vuong’s 2014 essay “On Hope, Fire Escapes, and Visible Desperation.”
Rehearsals for “Something Bright, then Blue,” initially began in the 2023-2024 academic year. When rehearsals to bring the piece to ACDA began in fall 2024, however, some dancers had graduated, which lengthened the rehearsal process.
“In this particular process, we rehearsed a lot more because we had a lot of people filling in for different roles,” said Bahr. “The process is a little different each time it happens.”
Additionally, Bahr’s original choreography ran longer than the 12-minute maximum length of pieces brought to ACDA, meaning she had to cut about four minutes of choreography from the dance.
The second dance, “Lost Connection, Please Try Again,” is choreographed by SUU student Allie Misbach. Misbach’s inspiration came in the form of desperation in the face on the ongoing suicide epidemic.
“It starts like very feeling alone, not seeing other people, even though there’s a ton of people around you,” said Misbach. “Then all of a sudden, you see all these people, and then you start supporting them, and they start supporting you equally.”
Misbach first created the piece during the summer of 2023, and it was originally performed in March 2024. The piece then went unvisited until January of 2025, when rehearsals for the ACDA showing of the piece began. With the exception of one dancer, the current cast is entirely different from the group that first performed it. Misbach has taken advantage of the extra time she has had to work on the piece.
“There’s so much change and evolution that comes with it, but the evolution comes in the quality of movement, not necessarily the choreography,” said Misbach. “I think there’s like this deepness that gets into your body when you’re dancing the same thing over and over again, that it becomes so familiar, that it’s like breathing a little bit.”
In addition to choreographing the piece, Misbach is dancing in it this time around, as well as dancing in Bahr’s piece.
“We have to film everything, because I have no idea what it looks like. That aspect is really hard, the logistics of literally not being able to see what it looks like,” said Misbach. “But I get to embody something that I felt before, and that part of it is so sweet. It’s the sweetest thing in the entire world”
Misbach is excited to have the opportunity to share something that she created and that means so much to her with fellow dancers at the ACDA conference.
“It’s the greatest honor I’ve had in my whole dance career,” said Misbach. “I’m really excited to bring it to ACDA. Super nervous, but so excited to be able to share my work.”
Author: Tessa Cheshire
Photographer: Tessa Cheshire
Editor: Heather Turner
arts@suunews.net
