USJ Spring Dance Concert
By: Nova Brown
USJ’s annual Spring Dance Concert is a collaborative event building bridges in the community between visiting artists and student choreographers. The show presents a diversity of styles such as contemporary, hip hop, jazz, and modern. This year, they are excited to present to you their spring dance performance.
Katherine Rigsby is one of the wonderful dancers and is a fourth year student in the Child Studies Major in the Elementary Education Program with a Dance Minor. She has been dancing for 19 years and dance has grown to be something that she is extremely passionate about. She has trained in various styles of dance including ballet, jazz, lyrical, contemporary, ballroom, and modern. Katherine’s main goal in dance has been to be able to convey a story or emotion to her audience. Throughout her time dancing and choreographing she has had this goal in mind. She believes that there is power through art and feels grateful to be able to do so in the USJ Dance Ensemble.
Nova: What is the USJ Dance Ensemble about, how was it formed?
Katherine: The USJ Dance Ensemble is the university’s performance dance group. Professor Susan Murphy started the ensemble to bring performing opportunities into the school community showcasing the art. We are a group of dancers from all grades levels and majors who showcase our works at several USJ hosted shows and events as well as showcases around CT.
Nova: What makes this spring dance concert special and what are you most excited about?
Katherine: The spring dance concert has always been my favorite dance ensemble event. It is a culmination of our training throughout the year while showcasing our individual skills. There are several USJ student choreographers, guest choreographers, and guest performers. It’s really special seeing what a large dance community we are a part of. I am so excited to show our audience the hard work everyone has put into the show. It’s also special because every year we partner with an academic program at USJ to connect arts with academia. This year we got to experiment with connecting to the English department with a Shakespeare themed hip-hop piece that has been fun working on.
Nova: What about a spoiler? Can you tell us anything about this upcoming performance?
Katherine: In addition to all our choreographers and guests shared with the public, there are also some additional surprise performances to be revealed at the show. There are also three graduating seniors in the ensemble this year, so there will be some bittersweet moments too.
Any additional information can also be found on the ticket link: https://www.showpass.com/usj-dance-ensemble-2026-spring-concert/