PODCAST:

The University of Virginia’s Dance Program and Department of Drama present the Spring Dance Concert 2026, an evening of eight original works by faculty, guest, and student choreographers.

TRANSCRIPT:

Ella Powell: 

This Thursday through Saturday, join the Virginia Dance Committee for their spring dance concert. For Arts This Week, we spoke with one of the student performers, Rachel Borowski.

Rachel Borowski: 

I’m Rachel Borowski, and I’m a third year architecture student at UVA, and I’m also a dance minor, which is how I sort of got introduced into VDC and just the dance concerts. And so essentially, what we’re focused on is kind of creating a community where all these dance minors and people involved in the concerts can sort of come together. We host monthly workshops and also some social events where we get together, watch some dance performances, and just sort of have that community that we know we can come to and work with and just be with while we’re rehearsing for all the concerts every year.

Ella Powell: 

Where does this spring concert fall within your schedule for the year or, I guess,

semester?

Rachel Borowski: 

Yeah, so we hold auditions at the beginning of the semester, then we immediately jump into rehearsals, which for me personally, is twice a week, about an hour and a half. And so we’re kind of just rehearsing throughout the entire semester every week, until we get to dress rehearsals and tech rehearsals at the end of the year, right before the performance.

Ella Powell: 

So what is this spring concert looking like?

Rachel Borowski: 

Yeah, so right now, we’re kind of in our dress rehearsal phase. A lot of the choreographers have their pieces that are focused on different things and different meanings, or maybe more abstract ideas or some concepts that really speak to them. I can talk about the one that I’m in, specifically Marlena, who’s one of the exec members on VDC, and also student choreographer, her piece is kind of focused on being kind of restricted or enclosed in a box and feeling like you can’t really escape that box, and kind of focused on societal expectations and just feeling kind of stuck in that. And so we’re kind of making a lot of visuals that are box like and kind of uptight and restricted. And so we hope that translates to the audience when they watch our piece entitled In The Absence of Release.

Ella Powell: 

So I guess is that the structure? Three different pieces?

Rachel Borowski: 

Yeah, we have multiple pieces, some that are student choreographed, also some that are worked on by faculty members. Then we also have some solos by some graduating fourth years. Yeah, so it’s a good mix.

Ella Powell: 

What has your experience been working on this performance with the whole team?

Rachel Borowski: 

It’s been incredible, honestly, besides just working with the other dancers of like, all different backgrounds and stuff, and learning from their experiences, I think it’s cool that we also work with the people behind the scenes, in a way, the lighting, people, sound people, the people just behind the stage, helping us run the show. It’s incredible to kind of learn from their perspectives, and just see all the different parts that come together to create this one show.

Ella Powell: 

How long have you been involved with VDC?

Rachel Borowski: 

Yeah, so this is my fourth time doing the concert, but kind of getting into VDC was about a year ago. I became the marketing chair, and so I get to create flyers and sort of help promote the concert.

Ella Powell: 

Would you like to share a little bit more just about VDCs overall mission and the background that you all have as an org?

Rachel Borowski: Mission wise, again, we kind of just want to create that space that brings all these dancers from different majors backgrounds all together, we host like social events again, where we can sometimes have dinner together, just hang out, maybe go on a farmer’s market trip, just kind of do things outside of dance to build that community so that we’re stronger when we’re kind of in that dance space.

Ella Powell: 

So the workshops that y’all host. Is that open to anybody?

Rachel Borowski: 

Yeah, it’s open to everyone, all ability levels, all backgrounds welcome. It’s just a fun, casual time to get together and dance. Usually they’ll happen on, like Thursday nights before we have our rehearsals, so everyone’s kind of already in the same space together.

Ella Powell: 

Can you share with us when and where the show will take place?

Rachel Borowski: 

Yes, absolutely. So it’s going to be this Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 8pm in the Culbreth Theater in the drama building.

Ella Powell: 

What can people expect when they show up at Culbreth? Like, how large of an event is this and what should they plan for?

Rachel Borowski: 

Yeah, we have a pretty big space. The Culbreth Theater is a very cool kind of big theater space. It’s pretty professional looking, so it’s exciting to perform on an actual professional stage in a way. For people coming to see the show, they can expect different performances, very abstract ideas, maybe more modern and concert dance based, which I think is unlike anything I’ve seen myself as a dancer, because I grew up kind of in the competitive dance environment, and so just coming into this, it’s very artistic and open-ended. And it’s really cool that the audience can kind of bring their own interpretations to what they see.

Ella Powell: 

I guess, anyone who is hearing this, or maybe who comes to the show and is interested in becoming involved with VDC, how might they go about doing that?

Rachel Borowski: 

You can honestly just find us on Instagram and shoot us a message, or during the club fairs at UVA, we’re always there. You can talk to us at any time, or honestly emailing Kim Mata, who’s the director of the dance program. There are definitely many ways to kind of contact us, and we’re open to anybody.

Ella Powell: 

So is Kim Mata one of the faculty members who kind of assist with some choreography, and are there other faculty members who contribute to that process as well?

Rachel Borowski: 

Yeah, absolutely. Kim this semester is not setting choreography. But she has before. We have Katie schetlick, who has choreography being showcased in this performance. And then Emily, who was also a professor, and she’s also setting some work, which is really cool to see.

Ella Powell: 

Is there anything else that you would like to share about this performance, or VDC in general?

Rachel Borowski: 

Yeah, absolutely. It’s just a fun time, a fun experience being a part of this concert, and then also VDC as a whole, I’ve definitely made a lot of new friends, met people from different majors, because at least for me as an architecture major, we’re pretty confined in that same kind of architecture bubble. So it’s been really nice to break out of that. Find some new people, some new connections, and move with different people.

Ella Powell: 

From 8pm to 9:30pm this Thursday through Saturday, join the Virginia dance committee for their Spring Dance Concert. The show will take place in Culbreth Theater, located at 109 Culbreth Road in the UVA drama building. Arts This Week is supported by the UVA Arts Council and Piedmont Virginia Community College. PVCC Arts presents a rich array of dance music, theater and visual arts programming. Learn more@pvcc.edu. For WTJU, I’m Ella Powell.