Companydance is a project-based student dance company that offers a range of performing opportunities and is open by audition to all students. The company's primary aesthetic is grounded in the modern dance tradition, but is by no means restricted to it. 
Companydance strives to be inclusive and accommodating to the evolving interests, needs and abilities of a broad spectrum of students (dance majors and non-majors), while encouraging student responsibility, collaboration, community building and of course, great dancing.
Students may select to participate in only one Companydance project, or they may choose to be more intensely involved. Student involvement also carries expectations for participation beyond the dancing (i.e. technical work, publicity, etc.).
New Companydance members are involved in a special project that provides opportunities to become familiar with St. Olaf's dance program and faculty and develop a sense of community within the project group.
Companydance has consistently included performing opportunities in:
- Works choreographed by faculty, students, and guest artists
- Improvisational dance pieces
- Site specific dances
- Special dance projects (dedication of buildings, presidential inaugurations, Peace Prize Forums, American College Dance Festivals)
- Works-in-progress showings (Family/Homecoming Weekend, guest artist residencies)
- Lecture-demonstrations (public schools, formal and informal performance spaces on campus, church spaces)
To provide for the optimum growth and safety for the students in Companydance, each member is required to be concurrently enrolled in a Dance Technique class at an appropriate level.
Veselica
Veselica is a student dance company with a global perspective that strives to spread awareness of dance forms from around the world. Veselica (pronounced veh-SELL-eetsah) translates as "celebration" in Serbo-Croatian. Artistic Director Anne von Bibra founded the international dance ensemble in the late 1980s. 
Veselica is open by audition to all students. Its objectives are:
- In keeping with the college's emphasis on a global perspective, Veselica seeks to introduce both student performers and audiences to dance as a global art, expanding their awareness of the spectrum of dance forms (and contexts) in the world.
- To give students an opportunity to develop skills in performing international dance forms, with a greater emphasis on developing proper styling than is possible in the technique classes.
- To give interested students an opportunity to develop skills in choreographing or staging international dance works.
- To have students experience the process of working together in a group to create quality performances through discipline and dedication/commitment.
- To expose the campus and community to varied world dance traditions performed in costume and to give them some background or understanding about the cultural significance of the forms.
- To provide opportunities for both children and adult audiences to experience some international dance forms themselves (through lecture-demonstrations and audience-participation at the close of concerts).
Questions about either company? Contact Janice Roberts at jroberts@stolaf.edu
