It’s been common knowledge for quite a while that there are several very accomplished arts programs at the universities in the area. Each school has their specialty, but overall, a lot of quality art, music, dance and theatre emerges from these programs every year.

n652246466_321655_7161.jpgFive or six years ago, a couple graduates from the various programs in town got together and had a great idea. Most of the various classes related to the arts have performances/shows as their final projects, but most of them are sparsely attended and largely ignored by the rest of the student body and surrounding community. To change this, the graduates used various connections in their respective schools and organized competitions between related disciplines to take place in the stead of multiple small performances. From the outset these have been wildly popular, and they’ve gone a long way in creating better connections between the universities and the communities that surround them.

Last night was the first in this series of competitions, and it was in music and dance. What I loved about this is that instead of holding separate music and dance performances, the organizers decided to combine them both. This not only drew a larger crowd, but also encouraged more internal cooperation between the music and dance departments within schools. And who prefers canned music over live, anyway?

There were several performances that covered many genres of music and dance, and they were all awesome. My favorites were Point Park’s Modern Dance to classic Pittsburgh Jazz and the Pitt African Drumming Ensemble. In the end, I voted for Pitt (I guess I do have some school spirit after all!), and they ended up winning the show!

It was a sweet performance, and I’ve enjoyed coming to the performances every finals season…which hasn’t been particularly helpful grade-wise! Later on this week I’ll tell you about the other competitions and how they went.