Common Moment

Friday, August 30, 2024 at 7:15pm
Andrus Field

FREE!

Two days after arriving on campus, new students will gather on Andrus Field for a joyful celebration of embodied practice—using your body to know the world.

The “Common Moment” is a New Student Orientation tradition that brings students together through movement—a collective experience they will remember for years to come. Over the course of one evening, teams of students learn short dances inspired by dance traditions from around the world, before performing for one another. Led by Dance Department faculty, the dances are simple, energetic, and fun. For the second time this year, the faculty leaders will be joined by members of the dance company Urban Bush Women. Like the common reading assigned to all incoming students as part of Wesleyan’s “First Year Matters” program (this year's reading is Kinari Webb's Guardians of the Trees: A Journey of Hope Through Healing the Planet), the “Common Moment” creates a shared experience among new students that highlights Wesleyan’s distinct approach to centering the practice of art in the pursuit of a liberal arts education

The 17th annual “Common Moment” celebration will include first year students from the Class of 2028, as well as new transfer students from both the Class of 2027 and the Class of 2026.

Image: Associate Professor of Dance Iddi Saaka at the "Common Moment" in 2023. Read more in The Wesleyan Connection. Photos by Sandy Aldieri of Perceptions Photography.