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THE STUDIO IS A SECOND HOME FOR MANY OF THESE STUDENTS...
Stephanie Heine/Dance Minor: "On average I dance about 40 hours a week."
Colleen King/Dance Minor: "We have rehearsals on Wednesday from 4 in the afternoon until 11 at night."
Stephanie: "I love it... it's my life..."
OVER THE YEARS, PASSION AND HARD WORK HAVE PAID OFF FOR THIS PROGRAM...
Stephanie: "it's known nationwide, which is awesome... because we have Barb and because we have Robin. They're just awesome professors that teach us so much. Not just how to dance... different techniques to dance... but how to choreograph, how to create movement, how to express yourself through movement. It's such a gift that we have here at the University of Whitewater."
Robin Pettersen/Dance Instructor: "They get kind of both sides of the dance education world with the 2 of us."
ROBIN PETTERSON HAS TWO MASTERS DEGREES IN DANCE...
Robin: "My colleague Barbara Grubel did work and performed in New York for 16 years."
Stephanie: "They challenge us constantly to really push ourselves."
SO IT SHOULD BE NO SURPRISE THAT WORK CREATED HERE... IS RESPECTED ON A NATIONAL STAGE.
Colleen: "We take our dancers to American college dance festival every year and we show our works compared to other schools."
Robin: "At the conference they look at 40-60 different works and they choose the best to be on a gala concert. We have in the last 9 years had 7 pieces chosen for gala concerts."
Colleen: "it's an honor."
Stephanie: "It's amazing. It's so awesome!"
PERHAPS EVEN MORE AMAZING... BECAUSE NONE OF THESE STUDENTS ARE DANCE MAJORS.
Robin: "They come from all different majors, so people are aware of our program in different departments because of the breadth of the students that we pull into the program."
THE PROGRAM IS ONLY OFFERED AS A MINOR, BUT THAT HASN'T AFFECTED THE LEVEL OF COMMITMENT OR QUALITY.
Robin: "The whole campus contributes to the success of our program... and the growth of our program."
AND TO ROBIN... IT'S ALL ABOUT GROWTH...
Robin: "About who they are as people... because they may never dance again, but they learn to commit themselves. And more than just their bodies. They work. They collaborate. They help each other. It's a powerful thing. I think about these times and you look at the news and you can get depressed. And you can think, everything's awful. And I feel so grateful to be creating work and to be creating work with people who commit themselves. And something happens."
WHAT HAPPENS... ARE LIFE LESSONS THAT EXTEND BEYOND DANCE.
Matthew Hackbarth/Student: "Today in America it's kind of an instant gratification kind of society and this is something that really takes a lot of work and control and building on it and looking towards what's going to happen down the road."
Kayla Punzel/Dance Minor: "We take care of each other outside of here. It's nice because you make those connections that you know are going to stay with you."
Tyler King/Student: "Give yourself a break... and have patience with yourself to learn something. It's gonna take time to get it. As long as you keep working at it...you'll do fine."
Robin: "Every year, I'll come home from rehearsal and say I just love my students. The people, the experience, the process... is more important than the product. You can have wonderful technicians who are boring to watch or horrible people, and we're not interested in that. The polished product isn't the end game. The end game is the growth of everybody."
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Robin: "We're fortunate that we tend to have some good products as well... laughs..."
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