Having dance experience was explicitly not required of students who signed up for Free University dance classes this Winter Study.
The program, which procures its funding from Williams Student Union and Facilitators for Allocating Student Taxes (FAST), sponsored over 70 student-run classes this Winter Study, covering everything from crafts to cooking. Five dance teams on campus — Asian Dance Troupe (ADT), Kusika, Nothing But Cuties (NBC), Ritmo, and Sankofa — took advantage of the program to open their doors to dancers of all levels.
One participant, Jackson Hipp ’28, was one of the beginners who participated in NBC, Sankofa, ADT, and StuCo’s classes during Winter Study. Hipp served as a photographer for the 15th Annual NBC and Sankofa show, which inspired him to learn some of the moves himself. “I really had no experience dancing,” he said. “This was a goal I had set for myself, since I never had that much skill, and I wanted to improve as much as I could.”
Hipp was able to achieve his goal after participating in three different classes. “The first time I did a dance all the way through and did it right was really cool for me,” he said.
Formed in 1999, NBC is a hip-hop dance group at the College. They recently performed during the halftime of the Homecoming game and hosted their own show along with Sankofa in December.
According to Nikki Lee ’26, an organizer and instructor for NBC’s classes, the team’s Free University class received a lot of excitement. For her, the experience of teaching her choreography to people outside of the team was deeply rewarding.
To make the classes welcoming for all dancers, Hipp said the instructors emphasized the values of community, skill-building, and having fun. Typical NBC class sessions included introductions and icebreakers, a warm-up, and a demonstration of the piece students would learn.
Compared to rehearsals during the semester, the Winter Study classes are much slower-paced, Lee explained. “We have to take a step back and realize that there are some moves that are not as intuitive to other people,” she said.
George Williams ’26, who attended NBC’s Free University class, said that the team provided a welcoming space for beginners like himself. “All of the NBC members who were there were very nice and encouraging,” he said. “I was surprised to get a lot of the dances.”
For Williams, the dance classes provided a chance to break out of his comfort zone and try something new. “I learned that I liked dancing even if I’m not all that good at it,” he said. “I took away an understanding of how NBC works and a hint of what they have to do to prepare for their shows.”
Ian Dominic ’27, Sankofa’s main instructor, said that, from the start, the emphasis is not on perfection, but on presence.
Sankofa focuses on step, which, according to Dominic, most students are not familiar with until they come to the College. “No one knows our style of dance,” Dominic said. “Teaching students from scratch — the techniques, the cultural context, the history, and why it belongs [at the College] — has been very important.”
The emphasis on cultural grounding transformed the classes into more than just dance rehearsals, Dominic said. In Sankofa classes, learning the choreography is inseparable from learning why the movement exists in the first place. Dominic sees classes as creating a space for cultural awareness alongside physical expression, an intention that carries weight within a predominantly white institution, and in turn, offers community to those who may have trouble finding it elsewhere. With limited space to organically build cultural connection, for Dominic, the classes became a place where shared cultural values could surface naturally. Dancing together created a sense of home, Dominic said, even miles away from one’s own.
Alexia King ’26 led two Free University classes, one hosted by Kusika — a student drumming and dance group focusing on styles from Africa — and the other hosted by Ritmo — the College’s Latinx and Afro-Latinx dance group. She found community-building to be one of the most meaningful aspects of her classes.
Ritmo’s dance routines are mostly partner dances, which King said makes it easier to meet new people from different class years. “There’s a level of vulnerability when you are meeting a new person for the first time, trying to make conversation, and trying to make your feet work,” she said. “Watching people on the dance floor and learning new steps was really rewarding. People connect through dance and music in a different way than you see them in the classroom.”
By opening dance classes to the broader student body, the leaders of these dance teams said they created moments of shared vulnerability: learning, laughing, and missing steps. “You see a bridge with people off the team and people on the team,” King said. “Winter Study is one opportunity to extend these dance circles.”
date: 2026-02-11 12:03:00