WAC. It’s a funny sounding acronym for an offbeat major
that creates original works and new artists each and every
year.
From June 10-12, the world arts and cultures department, along
with Highways Performance Space, presented their Student Festival
of Works, the final WAC production of the year.
The festival was one of the last times many graduating students
will ever perform for the WAC department before having to face the
competitive world of professional dance.
Those graduating will never have to hike 1.2 miles off campus to
the temporary building on Kinross, nor will they make frantic runs
to Whole Foods between their capoeira and beginning Indonesian
dance classes. Rarely will they have to answer that frequently
asked question of current students: What is WAC?
But the reason it’s asked is because many people
don’t seem to know the answer.
World arts and cultures is part of the School of Arts and
Architecture, and the major is divided into two concentrations,
dance studies and cultural studies.
“It’s needed because it changes people’s
lives. Two plus two doesn’t change my life; it’s art
that changes my life,” said Jackelyn Lopez, a graduating
fourth-year WAC student with a dance concentration. She performed
“La Tradicion,” a fusion of hip-hop and salsa dance
styles, in the festival on June 10 and 11.
Many of those graduating with works in the festival said they
were initially drawn to WAC and not other university dance programs
for the same reason: its open-minded approach to dance.
“It was one of the few programs that was actually trying
to put all forms of dance in an equal plane. A lot of programs just
focus on Western forms as the status quo,” said Marianna M.
Kim, who is completing her master of fine arts in world arts and
cultures. On June 11 and 12, she performed a movement/video work,
titled “Passage,” which was inspired by the Japanese
movement of Butoh.
Other dancers said WAC stood out because it took a more academic
approach to teaching dance than other schools.
“The dance became important because of all the things that
were connected to it,” said Laura Fuller, a fourth-year WAC
student with a dance concentration, who performed her
improvisational score, “Filter,” with fellow WAC
undergraduates.
Facing the real world with a slightly obscure major may seem
challenging, and many wonder where WAC students go. Those
graduating are confident WAC will help them pursue their goals.
“There are possibilities you couldn’t even imagine.
You could be a teacher, you could touch people’s lives and
change them, and that’s what makes it better (than other
programs),” Lopez said.
Many WAC students continue their education in dance through the
master’s and doctorate level, and plan to professionally
pursue the academic world.
But one fourth-year student, Catrice Jeannette Lawson, who
choreographed a piece about African American relationships and the
struggle with times of incarceration, plans to get a graduate
degree in social work, with a concentration on community organizing
and administrative planning at USC.
“I want to open up a nonprofit for arts and education that
is dance related,” she said.
Many graduating WAC students say that continuing dancing and
helping others are their main goals. Since there are few
professional jobs available to dancers, many turn to teaching to
continue their involvement in what they love.
“The arts is a connection where if you dance, you have
more self esteem, and if you dance you stay out of trouble,”
Lawson said. “When (many dancers) were younger, someone may
have helped (their lives through) dance.”
And now Lawson wants to do the same.
But for those who are not going to graduate school, concrete
plans are scarce. Most hope to teach, perform and eventually open
up a studio of their own.
“WAC has an ability to produce amazing people. Everybody
does their own thing but does it so wonderfully,” Fuller
said. “The work they have been doing in school is going to
continue and get bigger and bigger.”