Dance Extravaganza, or what is more commonly referred to as Dance X, is an annual dance production held here at Lewis & Clark in which alumni, student choreographers and dancers are given the opportunity to showcase a semester’s worth of hard work for a large audience.
This year’s production will be led by the Director of Dance, Professor Tiffany Mills, and this will be her first Dance X since joining the LC community last spring semester. Mills is also a choreographer herself and is the artistic director and owner of her dance company, Tiffany Mills Company, based in New York City.
One of the classes that Mills teaches is Theater 352, which is a course that students must take prior to choreographing the fall production.
“We have guidance along the way in terms of all the production needs, in terms of lighting, in terms of costuming, in terms of props or any design element. Then there’s also guidance from me in terms of what people are choreographing, asking questions and helping each choreographer explore their journey and experience and help them shape the best possible work they can imagine,” Mills said.
Though Mills has extensive experience with choreographing, this is her first experience in an academic setting guiding dancers and choreographers throughout their entire creative process.
“I haven’t ever gone on the whole journey from the beginning to end with this whole process and really gotten to work with younger artists from the seed of an idea all the way to the fruition of that idea,” Mills said.
Mills’ ample knowledge and experience in choreography have evidently proved extremely useful to the choreographers working on this production already. Ally Rose ’22 has found Mills’ mastery very helpful as they have gone through the process of this production.
“She has so much knowledge of the field and so much experience. It’s really great to have her be so present and coming to rehearsals and really talking us through things. She just has a really great perspective and I’m very, very happy to be working with her again,” Rose said.
While Mills’ expertise serves as a guiding force throughout the production, it is the choreographers themselves who bring a diverse range of artistic visions to life on stage. Each choreographer embarks on their own creative journey, shaping their pieces with Mills’ mentorship and support.
Another choreographer is Cassidy Floyd-Driscoll ’23, who has been a Dance X choreographer for three years.
“Our program is very focused on the artistry behind dance and asking questions and pushing boundaries and just playing a little bit more I think, (the shows are) a lot more about the creative discovery. And also our program is so open to anyone who wants to join,” Floyd-Driscoll said.
Every choreographer is required to come up with a central concept for their piece and is encouraged to create a vision board with images, quotes and whatever else represents that concept to the choreographer.
“My concept, I think, when I whittle it down, is creating something that is greater than the sum of its parts. I have a lot of imagery in my brain of losing track of whose arm is whose and whose leg is whose and just kind of moving as a group,” Floyd-Driscoll said.
Lila Ward ’25 has been involved with Dance X since her freshman year and this is her second time choreographing.
“I’m focusing on the lifespan of someone’s sexuality, and coming into it with this new, exciting discovery of that part of yourself. And then experiencing disempowerment and confusion and then after that, re-empowering yourself and finding confidence within yourself. That’s something that I thought would be an interesting topic, since sexuality is such a big part of most people’s lives,” Ward said.
Choreographers are also responsible for choosing the music that will go along with their piece, which they have complete creative freedom over.
“I made a mash-up this summer. There are six songs in it and they’re all from female artists that I love … It starts off with a Fiona Apple song. And then it goes on to Juliana Hatfield, who’s really awesome. I just discovered her, like, last year and then some Courtney Love, Amy Mann and Lauryn Hill,” Ward said.
Alvin Kilenga ’27 was a dancer for the Dance X production last year and will be choreographing this year. Kilenga has also already selected the music for his piece.
“With my piece, the music has a direct correlation with the intentions that I want to put with the choreography. So I would say that the music does have an inflection towards the dance, but also, at some points, the dance has an inflection on the music,” Kilenga said.
Kilenga focuses mainly on the genre of Afrobeats, with a specific center on a South African genre of dance and music called amapiano.
“My central concept for Dance X is a phrase, it’s something that we usually say back at home, it’s a phrase called Umoja. So I’m trying to explore this theme of togetherness within my piece, so togetherness in terms of movement, in terms of intentionality, in terms of expression, in terms of the environment. I’m trying to explore that theme through the lens of amapiano,” Kilenga said.
There is one dance this year with two alumni choreographers, Rose ’22 and Hoby Reece ’23.
“We actually met our freshman year. We were in the same Dance X piece and it was a trio. We became really close in that and we basically have been really close friends ever since and every dance thing we’ve basically done together,” Rose said.
This shared friendship between the two of them provided ample inspiration for the central concept of their piece.
“The inspiration for the piece is, for us, exploring the process of choreographing, because we both love the process of creating a piece so much. And we’ve been in, I think, six pieces together now and we just enjoy being with each other for that so much that a lot of the piece is going to be focused on the joy of creation and the process, rather than being focused on like the end, where the actual piece itself is more about the relationships,” Rose said.
Reece expanded on how their piece seeks to capture the essence of creativity and the relationships that emerge during the production journey.
“It’s like the moment of creative inspiration, or like that ‘aha’ moment that you have during a creative process. That’s something that we’re attempting to capture and put on stage, but ultimately we’re kind of just aiming to share a relationship between the dancers with the audience and kind of create a piece that is oriented on process and made by and for our dancers,” Reece said.
As the choreographers continue refining their works, anticipation builds for how these creative journeys will come together on stage. Despite being in the early stages, there is already a sense of cohesion emerging within this year’s production.
“We’re still in the very early stages of things, but I do feel like this year that there’s going to be some common themes between them all, and I think that they’re gonna flow very nicely. I just think that we have a lot of experienced choreographers, but experienced in different areas, and I think it’s gonna be a good one,” Floyd-Driscoll said.
This year’s Dance X production will be held Dec. 5-7, with nightly performances starting at 7:30 p.m. and the matinee on Dec. 7 starting at 2 p.m.
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