The students were dancing outdoors because dance department faculty and artistic director Anne Van Gelder brought guest choreographer Robin Dekkers and filmmaker Ben Estabrook to UR for an innovative project — creating a dance film to celebrate the University Dancers’ 40th anniversary.

The film, called Bolero, will premiere at the anniversary concert in the Alice Jepson Theatre Feb. 28-March 2, 2025.

The project took dancers out of the familiar confines of the studio and stage, scattering them across various campus locations. Maggie Crowe, a senior majoring in dance and American studies, said the approach integrated different aspects of her university experience.

“Sometimes things can feel compartmentalized, like I dance in Modlin and then I go study American studies,” she said. “Here, it’s like the different components of myself as a student and my life as a dancer get to come together.”

Van Gelder, the university’s director of dance, emphasized the project’s broader educational value. “Through projects such as this one, led by guest artists, dancers learn creativity, motivation, perseverance, and adaptability, characteristics that translate into any discipline,” she said.

Students said that using the campus as a setting for dance encouraged them to develop a new relationship with their performance space.

“I expected the location to be a background setting, but I found myself wanting to use the location as a part of the dance and to interact with it,” said Lucy Lew, a first-year student from near Scranton, Pennsylvania.

Filming the performance introduced another element, as the motion of Estabrook’s camera was like another dancer. Dekkers, the California-based artistic director at Berkeley Ballet Theater, calls it “the choreography of the camera.”

“We can do a close-up, we can do a really wide shot, and we can cut between different places,” he said. “The camera gives a sense of speed and traveling and momentum.”

The project presented novel challenges, from weather issues to the physical demands of dancing on unfamiliar surfaces like grass, brick pavers, and carpet. Caroline Perry, a sophomore, said it could feel like “a pressure cooker,” but that she welcomed it. “You get to stretch yourself in ways that you maybe didn’t even think you could be stretched.”

Despite the technical challenges and sore muscles — or maybe because of them — there was a sense of camaraderie among the dancers, who are enrolled in a variety of majors. As Crowe put it, “We know that we have different things going on, yet this is the place where we all experience the same things.”

Van Gelder said the program’s first foray into dance film is an exciting development that will reap benefits for years to come. Some of the dance majors participating in the creation of Bolero may decide to create their own films for their senior thesis capstone projects.

“Producing a film like this demonstrates to prospective students the type of cutting-edge work that we do here at Richmond,” she said. “In that way, it is an investment in our future because it showcases the interesting, creative pedagogical approaches we engage with.”