Student gains dance experience

Honors Tutorial College dance student Maya Holcomb used her Undergraduate Experiential Learning Award to learn more about and perform dance in Montreal and Toronto, Canada with two of her professors and six fellow students from the School of Dance in spring 2020.  

Maya had a very busy spring break, sight-seeing in Canada and learning while there for a dance tour. “On our way to Montreal we saw the Canadian side of the Niagara Falls, which was breathtaking. We saw many dancers and student choreographies at Concordia University in Montreal and York University in Toronto. We watched the National Ballet of Canada perform a new version of Romeo and Juliet by choreographer Alexei Ratmansky, and we watched famous choreographies by the Nederlands Dans Theater. We also went to the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. We performed at a children’s school in the forests of Montreal that focuses largely on arts education and access for their students.” 

One of the most important lessons Maya learned through her experience in Canada came from the classes she participated in with dancers from other universities. She thought it was interesting and valuable to learn how content of one subject could be taught differently because the cultures are so different.  

Before her trip to Montreal and Toronto, Maya had aspired to travel around the world to experience dance in other countries, but this trip was her first experience doing so. She found a love for a new language and culture and is excited to keep traveling, performing for other others, and learning from others.  

Maya’s advice for people interested in experiential learning is to “just go for it! Traveling and experiencing offers the best, most authentic learning. I love that this award is so welcoming and supports such a diversity of opportunities. Students I met who received the award were from all different majors applying for funding for all different kinds of experiences”.  

For information about the Undergraduate Experiential Learning Award, visit the Undergraduate Experiential Learning office’s funding page or contact experiential.learning@ohio.edu.   

View the dance Maya choreographed