Collaborative dance

A collaboration between Wright State University and Dayton Contemporary Dance Company is exposing the country to both dance programs.

Select Wright State dancers perform with DCDC2, Dayton Contemporary Dance Company’s repertory-training ensemble. Those students receive scholarship support to train with both Wright State’s dance program and DCDC2.

DCDC2 also regularly performs in the Wright State Dance Ensemble’s spring concert.

“The partnership between Wright State and DCDC has helped me grow as an artist because I’m able to pull from two separate organizations,” said Alexis Brtiford, a Wright State alumna who performed with DCDC.

Britford was the female lead in DCDC’s Bessie Award-winning performance of “Rainbow ‘Round My Shoulder,” which the company performed at Lincoln Center in Manhattan.

Elizabeth Ramsey, a 2016 Wright State graduate, joined DCDC’s first company in July. “It’s my dream, and I’m so happy every day,” she said.

“It’s a wonderful thing to see the dance majors being successful, whether they enter DCDC or Broadway. We have a lot of people working musical theatre, yet they take the same ballet and modern classes that train those DCDC dancers. It’s very humbling,” said Teressa Wylie, professor of dance at Wright State.