By Atmika Iyer
For UC Santa Barbara 2023 graduate Nina Lopez, choreographing three numbers for the Spring Dance Recital “VITALITY” was about using physical movement to express love and devotion.
The dance and communications double major capped off her collegiate journey in dance by choreographing “Our Love” by Natalie Cole, “Agape,” by Nicholas Britell and a cover of “Sweet Disposition,” originally by the Temper Trap for the VITALITY concert earlier this spring at the Hatlen Theater.
Five UC Santa Barbara seniors choreographed for the Spring Dance Recital “VITALITY,” as a culmination of their college dance educational career. Image credit: Fritz Olenberger.
Lopez was one of five senior students who choreographed the concert in collaboration with associate professor Monique Meunier, lecturer Christina McCarthy and alumna Amanda Tran. The five choreographers — Lopez, Jessie Chin, Emily Eckert, Mia Griff and Madeline Josa — drew different sources of inspiration to choreograph their respective pieces for the concert as a culmination of their dance education at UCSB.
Lopez says her choreography was inspired by the Song of Songs — an erotic poem within the Old Testament — which she described as “the ultimate love poem about the relationship between a lover and a beloved.”
Lopez has been dancing since she was a toddler, but her dance career officially began when she was in the sixth grade and joined the Xavier Dance Academy in Riverside County, California. She continued dancing with the studio till she graduated from Xavier College Preparatory High School — a Jesuit high school.
She recently sat down for an interview to discuss her beginnings in dance, her collegiate dance experiences, and her future career in the field.
Q: Why was the Song of Songs your inspiration for the concert choreography, and how was the poem adapted into dance?
A: [This] was me coming to a place of recognizing the kind of person I am and I am a person worthy of feeling beloved, and also learning how I can better love other people. So that was kind of what drew me to the Song of Songs.
I took this technique that I learned in one of my dance classes: taking the words, then reading them out loud and making a move that makes you think of that word. I just read out loud to myself and then found movement with the way that my voice, my tone went, or this movement makes me think of a rose or this makes me think of a lily. Ultimately, what I wanted was a vision of beauty, a beautiful painting of what love really is.
Five UC Santa Barbara seniors choreographed for the Spring Dance Recital “VITALITY,” as a culmination of their college dance educational career. Image credit: Fritz Olenberger.
Q: Why did you decide to pursue dance at UCSB, and what were the most valuable lessons from your collegiate experience?
A: I'd always had it on my heart to have a college degree just because dance isn't a stable career. The longest you can go is 30, 35, maybe 40 if you're really, really lucky. Ultimately, I made the decision that I wasn't done with dance, and I wasn't totally going to give up on my dream of going professional, so I settled on going to college for dance, getting my degree so that I wouldn't have to worry about it.
I've grown in my dance training, and I really think that I've come to my peak athletic level by being here. It's taught me so much about finding my own voice, not being ashamed to say what I want to say [and] being creative and not being afraid to be creative. I think I was a really shy person before coming into college, and dancing actually gave me so much more confidence, because there was such an atmosphere of support here, because everyone's working for the same goal and everyone wants to grow, but it's not a competitive place at all. It's really just a place where learning is so gently fostered.
Q: Can you tell me about watching your choreography come to life on the stage?
A: It's really interesting because I have my own ideas when I'm choreographing and what feels good on my body or what kind of shapes I can specifically make, the way I'm built. But when you're working with another set of people, you kind of have to analyze how their body moves and how it looks natural to them. And sometimes that doesn't exactly line up with your body and what's natural to you.
So it was really special seeing things that I created on my own body on a different frame … how they can make certain moves more gentle, or more strong and firm than I could.
Q: How are you looking to pursue dance in your post college career?
A: It's so funny. I never pictured being a dance teacher. It's actually something I always said you would never find me doing. But that's most likely what I'm going to do, is end up teaching dance either here in Santa Barbara if I can find a job around here. Or my big goal is moving to Pasadena and hopefully getting connected with a studio there with a family friend of ours…I've been so involved in dance for so long, I can't imagine just dropping it right now — especially given all the tools that I've gained over my time here. I definitely want to spend some time over the next couple months or a couple of years exercising them to the fullest extent that I can.
Atmika Iyer is a third-year student at UC Santa Barbara studying History. She wrote this article for her Digital Journalism course.