Associate Professor David McGraw and Gaby Minionis ’24 share about their efforts to make this annual one-day event so special for high school dancers.
For arts administration major Gaby Minionis’24, this year’s Elon Dance Experience was “cultivating artistry through a new lens.”
Held Saturday, Nov. 11, in Arts West, the one-day event for high school dancers provides them with the space to explore new dance genres on the collegiate level.
“This is for high school students to really experience what dance classes in a college setting are like and pique their interest in a major or minor, or to just have fun and dance,” said Minionis, who is also majoring in dance performance and choreography and sport management.
Minionis helped organize the Elon Dance Experience this year as her senior project for her arts administration degree. What used to be known as “Discover Dance” is now rebranded to “The Elon Dance Experience.” Seniors changed the event to expose high schoolers to more than just dance, but also other Arts courses at Elon University.
“I would say the goal of this project is for students to take the lead in designing it,” said Associate Professor of Arts Administration David McGraw. “They really do project management on it from the start. They decide what needs to be done, what we’re going to put in terms of registration in terms of who we want to attend, and how we’re going to reach out to students.”
Now on its third year, the event launched in 2021 with the help of a grant from the Elon Innovation Council. Through collaboration with the Center for Design Thinking, event coordinators worked to ensure that the Elon Dance Experience would serve all high school students who participated.
“We started with a survey, we talked to students, and talked to their high school and dance teachers to see what they needed from the dance experience,” McGraw explained. “A lot of the elements like hip-hop and the West African dance are things that they weren’t getting from their schools or studios, but we could offer here.”
Minionis was one of 12 seniors who began coordinating the event in August and took the lead in the design and rebranding of the event. The classmates played off each other’s strengths in event management and learned more about what goes on behind the scenes of an arts event.
“I really enjoyed the creative process of it all and the collaboration with my classmates,” she explained. “I learned more about social media. I learned more about how to outreach within the community to other studios and schools, and really kind of marketing the event.”
With career aspirations in event management and teaching, Minionis gained valuable experience to apply to the real world through her work on the Elon Dance Experience. Most importantly, she appreciates the teamwork skills she acquired throughout this project.
“At the end of the day, the mission and goal that you start with at the beginning, stay true to it,” she said. “It can be executed with collaboration and creativity working with others, which was super meaningful to me.”