The Webster University Department of Dance connects with aspiring dancers early – really early. A decade from now, one of the department’s first third-grade students may be enrolling here at Webster.
For more than a decade, the department has held workshops and intensives for middle and high school dancers looking to gain college-level dance experience. This summer, a mini-level summer intensive will be offered to third-, fourth- and fifth-graders.
The idea came after the middle-school program sold out before it started. Dance department chair Maggi Dueker realized it as a prime opening to connect with younger students.
“I think it’s just a great opportunity to share what we love to do and what I think we do very, very well with the community to build those relationships, to build awareness of our programming and what we do here,” Dueker said. “And it doesn’t necessarily need to translate to enrollment down the line, but that’s great when it does.”
According to Dueker, the intensives bring a bigger audience for the dance department’s performances.
“These students will come back and back and back again to see us and they build relationships with the program,” Dueker said.
In February, the department held its annual winter workshops. High-schoolers and middle-schoolers got to learn the same dance styles: ballet, modern, jazz and aerial. The classes are taught by Webster staff, including Dueker, with days lasting from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m, including lunch and a discussion with dance faculty and current students.
The dance styles chosen are a mix between popular demand and showcasing what Webster offers.
“We have emphases in ballet and modern and so it makes sense that we would start our day off with those classes,” Dueker said. “But then we find, especially the aerial program, something that’s kind of unique to Webster and a lot of students don’t have the opportunity to explore that elsewhere, and so they really like having the chance to do that here.”
Dueker adds students who attend the intensives usually return for other workshops offered at different times of the year.
“They come to know and to love Webster, and so when it comes time to look at the college options, we’re high on their list,” Dueker said.
For freshman dance major Vivian Birch, volunteering at the workshop was a full-circle moment. Five years ago, Birch performed aerial dance for the first time at the workshop. Now, she shows high schoolers the ropes – er, silks.
“I came to the workshops when I was in middle and high school, I wanted to volunteer for them, regardless, just because it’s so special to me because this is how I started here,” Birch said.
All dance majors under a scholarship are required to volunteer for the workshops. But many students take the opportunity, anyway.
“Our students really enjoy the opportunity,” Dueker said. “They really take great pride in being here on these days. And it’s always exciting for me to see our dance majors, how engaged they are with the students and being a part of these programs, too. So I love that because I think that hopefully it’s a legacy that will continue on.”
Fourteen-year-old Sage Dobbins signed up for the workshop because she wanted to gain some experience outside of her dance studio.
“It’s definitely challenged me to mix technique and performing all in one at the same time, not just go between one or the other, but to really put them into both,” Dobbins said. “It was very fast paced, which I enjoyed. And the range of all the classes that I took were a lot different, which was nice.”
While the workshop helped Dobbins improve her already existing skills, it also gave her a new opportunity: aerial.
“I’d never really done anything like that before,” Dobbins said.
Birch believes it’s important for young dancers to know going to college for dance is an option – a push she needed to realize for herself.
“I think it’s really important for schools and for Webster to reach out to young dancers and studios and really show them what their opportunities are in regard to dance,” Birch said.
During the summer, the department will offer three levels of its summer intensive: senior, junior and mini. High-schoolers can participate from July 21 to 25, middle-schoolers from July 28 to 31, and third- to fifth-graders from Aug. 1 to 3.
“Hopefully, it’s a legacy that will continue on,” Dueker said.
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