Scene on Campus

Airborne

Remarkable photos of Yaledancers, a student dance troupe.

“High-intensity” is how Kaylyn Williams ’17, copresident of Yaledancers, describes this dance. Clearly, she’s understating. The dance, performed to the pulsating beat of “Breath of Life” by the band Florence and the Machine, features two teams of dancers that face off onstage, mirroring each other and executing extravagant moves like the leaps shown here. (Pictured mid-leap are Liam Appelson ’19, left, and Brandon Rabaria ’19, right.) The dance was choreographed by Gracie White ’16, and all of it—choreography, staging, rehearsals, performance—was the work of Yaledancers.

The group, founded in 1973, accepts students by audition only. It currently has 31 members, predominantly undergrads. All of them, says Williams, love being part of a student-led and mostly student-choreographed group that draws on as many styles as the dancers want to bring in. But those with more specialized tastes have lots of other options: Yaledancers is just one of 24 member groups of the Alliance for Dance at Yale. The choices include Mexican, Irish, and Punjabi traditional dance, not to mention swing, ballet, contemporary African, ballroom, tap, and Bollywood fusion.

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