In a program filled with some of the most gifted young dancers across the globe, the Kaufman School of Dance’s newest class proved it was more than capable of allowing their talents to shine through in a crowd of some of the world’s brightest young stars.

Dozens of family members and students filled the Kaufman halls to see the school’s annual “Fresh Sesh,” a production highlighting the program’s freshmen dancers. 

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Thursday’s two shows were composed of electrifying performances that ranged from passionate duets, to personal solo performances, to small group pieces ingrained in dramatic storytelling and comedy, to larger, collective, more relaxed compositions with electronic and hip-hop-inspired sounds. 

The show was clearly polished, but still fun: The dancers absolutely killed it and executed at the highest level, and the energy that they brought into the room was contagious. Loud cheers resonated between dances and between beats in individual pieces.

The dancers engaged their crowd; the love that the audience felt for the art that these students put together could be felt throughout the entire dance hall. The dancers aimed to elicit emotion from their audience, and they delivered.

“One of the big parts of my piece that I wanted to come across was comedy and making sure your eye goes to the right place and that it actually made sense and that it gave you an emotion,” said Bella Mills, a freshman majoring in dance. “It was really validating when people came up to me after [and] they’re like, ‘Your piece was so funny!’ or ‘Your piece was so happy!’ because I was like, ‘Oh, it actually came together.’” 

The show was entirely student-produced and student-choreographed, which allowed for heavy experimentation from the dancers themselves. Even for Kaufman’s dancers, who are seasoned veterans in their craft, the “Fresh Sesh” in particular presented them with challenges they hadn’t encountered before. They were crunched for time, only having roughly two weeks to prepare and compose the show. 

The fact that the show was entirely produced by the dancers themselves forced them to venture out of their comfort zones and tap into skill sets they hadn’t accessed before. 

Mikaela Zarsky, a freshman majoring in dance, touched on some of the new challenges that producing a show brought her.

“I’ve never choreographed a piece before, so it took me a long time to come up with a concept and moves to match [it],” Zarsky said. “That’s something I didn’t have experience in, so it definitely took me a while, and it was a lot of figuring out what I wanted and trying again.”

Many dancers also felt the show was a good opportunity for them to develop more trust and chemistry with one another, as it allowed them to familiarize themselves with each other’s styles and ability on an intimate level.

“It’s our first experience that we all got to work with each other and dance with each other and learn each other’s moves and set choreography with one another,” said Samiyah Norris, a freshman majoring in dance. “In itself, we got to learn so much personally with one another because we were kind of forced into a setting where we were all supposed to do it together.” 

Despite the various difficulties that stemmed from the student-driven nature of this year’s “Fresh Sesh,” dancers’ directorial freedom allowed them to tailor elements of their choreography to their specific visions. Many of the dancers felt that the most rewarding part of creating “Fresh Sesh” was the personability that the project allowed them, and the satisfaction that came from pushing the boundaries of what they thought they could do as a group and as individual dancers. 

Elizabeth Smiley, a freshman majoring in dance and one of the few performers to have her own solo, elaborated on what her contribution to the show meant for her and her growth as a dancer.

“Seeing the way that it played out and being able to do a piece with eight, nine people in two weeks — that was a lot, but I did it and I think it’s amazing,” Smiley said. “Doing a solo here for the first time, I’ve had a lot of anxiety surrounding solos in general and improv onstage before, and I did it.”