Editor’s Note: The Echo decided to grant anonymity to two sources in this article, following their requests out of fear of retribution from individuals within the Theatre & Dance Department. These sources will be referred to under the pseudonyms “Brianna” and “Kaitlyn.”
At California Lutheran University, the Theatre & Dance Department offers a variety of programs for students; unfortunately, many of these opportunities focus on theater workload and often neglect dance minors.
“From a student perspective, I would say it feels very much like theater is, like, the main central focus, and that dance tends to be, like, a last thought,” said a dance minor student, who will be referred to by the pseudonym “Brianna.”
Another dance minor, who will be referred to by the pseudonym “Kaitlyn,” said she doesn’t think the department communicates well with the dance minors. According to Kaitlyn, the dance side of the department is constantly neglected.
“I feel like a lot of time as a dance minor, we are, kind of, left out of the loop on kind of what’s happening in the department,” Kaitlyn said.
Communication within the department goes beyond dance minors, as people who are not part of the department but are involved are also left out of the loop. As someone in this situation, I feel like there is significant room for improvement.
During this semester, there has been some miscommunication regarding the planning of the dance concert, including how auditions and tech were scheduled.
I am not the only student who feels this way. Senior dance minor Leah Derrick said that the communication within the department has not always been clear. Derrick said she was not aware that there were required department meetings until her sophomore year.
The Theatre & Dance Department meetings require students under the Visual and Performing Arts Scholarship, along with majors and minors, to attend weekly meetings with the department assistants.
“I’ve been to multiple, like, necessary meetings,” Brianna said. “We had a guest speaker come in, he’s an alumni, but he’s acting. And [so I think,] ‘In what way, like, does that necessarily benefit me?’ Maybe it’s interesting, but it doesn’t really benefit me to be there.”
During this school year, Derrick said she has been taking dance classes while the department meetings are happening.
“Even at these meetings, usually the dance department isn’t really discussed or talked about, and because they use the meetings as ways to get speakers in, most of the speakers really focus on theatre specifically, like acting and doing that professionally, which is not very useful for someone who’s strictly in a dance minor or in the dance area,” Derrick said.
According to Brianna, workshops are often more theater-based, but this semester, a few workshops were dance-based.
Former Professor of Dance Stephanie Liapis used to be the person dancers would go to for feedback, advice, and dance-related problems. Liapis was also the professor of Choreography I & II, neither of which were offered this semester.
“With Stephanie, it was a thing where I wanted to show her my pieces. I wanted her feedback. I wanted to grow,” Kaitlyn said.
Cal Lutheran does not offer many dance classes, students have to take the same class multiple times to reach the credit requirement for the dance minor.
This affects the education of students pursuing a minor as there is no style and faculty variety.
Dance classes keep getting cancelled, either because there isn’t enough enrollment or there is no faculty to teach classes. A lot of these classes aren’t being replaced, which, according to Brianna, also makes it hard to fulfill the dance minor requirements.
“It’s difficult to navigate because, as someone who’s trying to get a degree and graduate, you don’t know if you’re gonna be able to get that,” Brianna said.
Kaitlyn said she believes a master’s degree should be required to teach dance at a university level.
It is difficult to put students in a position where they must learn from their peers.
“I’m learning from people who are in the same boat as I am. I don’t wanna learn from you. I want to learn from people who have experience and knowledge to pass down to me,” Kaitlyn said. “I think it’s crazy that we’re paying all this money to go here, and we don’t have proper people to run our department and teach us.”
