Students give new life to Shakespeare’s side characters

Story by Jenny Applegate | Photos by Corey Wilson
September 19, 2023

What does it mean to belong? What does it mean to define yourself? 

Eleven students and lecturer Donald Isom explored these questions in a summer pilot program called HATCH (Holistic Approaches to Transformative Choreography). 

Charles Anderson, Department of Dance chair, led the first version of this new-works incubator, which brings in resident choreographers to work with students. He asked dancers to play off characters from Shakespeare’s The Tempest: Ariel and Caliban, both on the island before the main character, Prospero, arrived and there after he left. 

“We know they have a reality we never get to hear,” says Anderson, who will use this work to inform a commissioned piece.

As HATCH continues, the choreographers will help students stretch their skills and — just maybe — discover something about themselves.