SLU’s Department of Music and Performing Arts has organized several dance concerts for Fall 2025. The department’s dance company, the Dance Performance Project, put on the “LA Strong: 14 Victims” concert directed by Director of Dance Keith “Skip” Costa from Sept. 30 to Oct. 1 as part of Fanfare, SLU’s annual fall arts festival. 

Senior business management major Kairah Senegal’s thesis concert, Bienvenue la Fin, is set to premiere tonight in Pottle Auditorium at 7:30 p.m.

“LA Strong: 14 Victims” was a concert in tribute to the victims of the terror attack in New Orleans on New Year’s. Testimonies from the victims’ family and friends preceded each dance sequence in the concert. The faculty director and three student choreographers began the production in Spring 2025 and had five weeks to choreograph. The mother of one of the victims, Hubert Gautreaux, was in attendance on opening night, and that night’s performance was dedicated to him.

Junior dance major Angelina Neal, a member of the Dance Performance Project, discussed the process of rehearsing for the concert and how the video portion of the performances was integrated with the choreography during the latter stages of production. 

“We weren’t aware of the bigger picture so we were just rehearsing regularly until show week, and we were able to see the projector film and how much of a bigger theme we were contributing to,” Neal said. 

SLU’s dance program has incorporated video into its previous fall productions, in addition to dance courses. Videographer Stephen Gerhardt provided the footage used during the concert. The purpose of the video elements was to show who these victims were and further engage the audience.

The concert’s focus was on using the medium of dance to explore how the attack impacted the local community and people who knew the victims, while also conveying the emotions that remain present.

For Neal, the balancing act of processing emotions on stage while also maintaining structure as a dancer was a challenge during practice. 

“Just showing up and trusting yourself because you really never know what’s going to come up, you just have to trust it will pass and if you allow yourself to feel it, that everything will be okay and that you can feel those feelings when they come up for you, because that’s the whole point. Releasing those feelings through dance and being honest,” Neal said. 

Costa expressed positive feelings toward the concert and the reception from the audience. 

“This is one of my top two dance concerts of all time that we have created here at Southeastern since I began teaching in 2013. I am so proud of this group of company dancers who have allowed themselves to be emotional, vulnerable and to dignify and pay their respects to other human beings who many never knew personally,” Costa said.

Using dance as a means of expressing personal feelings and understanding oneself is a theme that finds itself in Senegal’s thesis concert. Senegal said she used experiences and challenges from her freshman year and came into her own as a senior. The show’s title, “Welcome the end” in French, serves as a personal reflection of Senegal’s roots in Lafayette.

Senegal’s experience with dance goes back before her time at SLU, where she performed with her middle and high school dance teams. She credits her time at SLU with helping her discover her own style as a dancer and fostering her growth as a young adult. 

Senior general studies major and member of Dance Performance Project, Trinity Brown, described a bonding moment during rehearsal. 

“When one dancer in rehearsals says, ‘I am very confused,’ it makes you just giggle and not giggle at them. Giggling with them because everyone is probably confused. Learning choreography and working with Kairah for years, that girl surely knows how to make a dance hard to learn, but that is what makes them so beautiful on the stage,” Brown said. 

With the concert date approaching, Senegal expressed excitement about her work, as well as the efforts of everyone involved in the production.

“I was very nervous last week, but this week everything started to come together, and what I

have imagined, I started to see. I’m very excited to see how it all comes together with the

lights and music during tech and even more excited for everyone to experience what I have

these past four years,” Senegal said. 

More information on SLU’s dance season schedule for 2025-26 can be found on the SLU website.