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Written By Cadence Panol

Edited by Eduardo Imbert

Photography by Cadence Panol

On Monday, April 28, 2025, two seniors from the �鶹��ý�Ŷ� Theatre and Dance Department presented their scholarly research in choreography at the 12th annual SUNY Undergraduate Research Conference (SURC) at SUNY Binghamton. The conference is a multidisciplinary spring semester event that brings together undergraduate students from across the SUNY system. Students present oral, performance, display, or poster research projects, and receive the opportunity to engage in a SUNY Graduate School and Career Fair and professional development workshops for students and faculty.

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Olivia Okoniewski is a senior Communication major with minors in Dance and Business Administration. Her dance, Heal, was inspired by an important member of her family who had been working through substance misuse. According to Okoniewski, the goal of her piece was to channel “kinesthetic empathy” through a vicarious viewing experience and engender stronger emotional connections between the audience and the “dancers, the dance, and the story they tell.” It featured a combination of tap and contemporary dance in order to show the “difficulties and challenges one faces in overcoming substance misuse, and how rediscovering yourself after this intense journey can be challenging, yet rewarding.” Dancers Grace Weidman (‘26), Leah Allegro (‘26), and Gabrielle Borawa (‘25) showed that it is by leaning on the support of others that one can begin to truly “heal” after such a difficult experience.

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Shannon Altman is a senior English and Adolescent Education major with a minor in Dance. Her contemporary dance, The Purgatory, explores the state of purgatory, where one finds themselves in a strange emotional and mental middle ground–not entirely high or low. She explored this transitional phase of life through sound, touch, and sight through movement, channeling the input of her three dancers, Natalia Biehl-Narvaez (‘26), Julia Lingenfelter (‘26), and Olivia Okoniewski (‘25) into the creative of the piece. In order to challenge her choreographing process and incorporate the discussions of what purgatory is for each of the dancers personally, Altman didn't prepare the choreography ahead of time. For her, “this dance was just about as much about my three dancers as it was about my own story,” so finding a unique way to blend their stories with her own required deep discussions and an openness to allow her dancers to initiate the narrative. 

Shannon and Olivia were two of six students who choreographed pieces for the fall Dance Concert. The pieces were presented initially at Journeys Unfolding (November 14 - 17, 2024), �鶹��ý�Ŷ� Dance Ensemble’s fall concert, and a second time in the spring Dance Ensemble concert, Dancing into View (February 27 - March 2, 2025).

Students choreographing in the fall Dance Ensemble concert enroll in DANC 332: Composition II, where they complete a directed study with a chosen faculty member in the Dance Department. They work with their faculty advisor to create a concept and choreography, then they cast dancers at the beginning of the fall semester at the Dance Call that is open to all �鶹��ý�Ŷ� students. The choreographers work with students and faculty in the Theater Department to design the lighting and costumes, and they coordinate each element of technical theater and performance to produce a showcase each fall featuring the student works. Altman and Okoniewksi’s pieces were selected to be presented a second time at the spring dance concert along with works choreographed by �鶹��ý�Ŷ� Dance Faculty members Alissa Bachand, Deborah Scodese-French, and Jonnette Lancos, and a piece choreographed by guest choreographer Hettie Barnhill. 

After graduating from �鶹��ý�Ŷ� this May, Altman plans to move to Boston in order to pursue a career in teaching English. At the same time, she hopes to take every opportunity that she can to continue pursuing her love for dancing. 

Okoniewski plans to work towards becoming a Certified Group Fitness Instructor through the American Council on Exercise Program and continue her love for dance by teaching and choreographing at two dance studios in Syracuse, NY. She also plans to take a year to save money so that she can apply for graduate school and one day work towards becoming a professor of dance. 

This opportunity was coordinated by Professor Jonnette Lancos, the head of the Dance Department, and Anne Baldwin, Director of Sponsored Research.