{"id":7449,"date":"2018-04-21T11:06:55","date_gmt":"2018-04-21T15:06:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/academics\/music-and-dance\/?p=7449"},"modified":"2024-04-22T14:37:10","modified_gmt":"2024-04-22T18:37:10","slug":"profile-of-dance-minor-molly-murphy-18","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/academics\/music-and-dance\/2018\/04\/21\/profile-of-dance-minor-molly-murphy-18\/","title":{"rendered":"Profile of Dance Minor Molly Murphy ’18"},"content":{"rendered":"

There is no question that senior Molly Murphy finds happiness through\u00a0dance<\/span>. Any of her performances at the Swarthmore student\u00a0dance<\/span>\u00a0concerts these past four years has showcased not only her finesse and technicality in tap\u00a0dancing<\/span>, but also her ability to brighten the stage with an infectious smile and an energy that radiates throughout the theater. Off the stage, Molly is a little more reserved and soft spoken, though her gentle and soothing demeanor is still as infectious as her stage presence. During my conversation with her, I found myself drawn in, listening to her words with an attentiveness that follows when someone has hushed and important things to share.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a very quiet person; tap is when I let out a lot of noise. It\u2019s my happy place. People tell me I\u2019m very different when I tap\u00a0dance<\/span>\u00a0or when I\u2019m performing tap than in every other circumstance. Tap is another way for me to express myself and communicate in ways that I often can\u2019t do when I\u2019m talking to people.\u201d Tap has been a mode of expression for Molly and has provided a source of support while at Swarthmore. Despite her shyness in outside contexts, Molly has discovered a form of communication that has allowed her to connect with students and professors in and out of the studio, allowing her to lay hold of\u00a0dance<\/span>\u00a0as an identity within her community.<\/p>\n

\u201cComing to Swarthmore and meeting Sharon Friedler, talking with her and taking classes with her, I realized how big a part\u00a0dance<\/span>\u00a0was in my life. Before Swarthmore, I never really thought of it in relationship with my identity. I took Arts as Social Change and\u00a0Dancing<\/span>\u00a0Identities and did my first independent project [all with Professor Friedler]. I realized it was something I couldn\u2019t put to the side.\u00a0Dance<\/span>\u00a0is something that\u2019s gotten me through Swarthmore and being a\u00a0dance<\/span>\u00a0minor ensured that\u00a0dance<\/span>\u00a0wouldn\u2019t get pushed aside in the face of other commitments.\u201d<\/p>\n

These academic\u00a0dance<\/span>\u00a0courses, particularly Arts as Social Change and\u00a0Dancing<\/span>\u00a0Identities, opened Molly\u2019s eyes to the possibility of\u00a0dance<\/span>\u00a0to influence people\u2019s lives and create change in communities. As a Peace and Conflict Studies major, Molly has naturally been interested in the ways that\u00a0dance<\/span>\u00a0can offer meaning and impact.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a Peace and Conflict Studies major; taking Arts as Social Change made me more aware of\u00a0dance<\/span>\u00a0as a positive form of social change, whether that is in youth programs, prison settings, or Sharon\u2019s\u00a0dance<\/span>\u00a0programs for people with Parkinson\u2019s Disease. It\u2019s kind of a therapeutic tool for a variety of different communities and a way to pass on tradition and stories.\u201d<\/p>\n

Molly hopes to continue participating in\u00a0dance<\/span>\u00a0communities even after she graduates from Swarthmore this spring. Recently, she has been taking swing\u00a0dance<\/span>\u00a0and tango classes in Philadelphia, and finds that having common ground, a passion for\u00a0dance<\/span>, makes connecting with people a little bit easier. Even despite the exciting possibility of meeting new people in\u00a0dance<\/span>communities, Molly is still nostalgic about her time at Swarthmore and nods agreeably when I ask her if there are things she will miss about the\u00a0Music<\/span>and\u00a0Dance<\/span>\u00a0Department here.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh yeah. All of the LPAC crew and teachers and professors in the\u00a0dance<\/span>department, they really made Swarthmore home for me. I\u2019m going to miss that because coming into Swarthmore, it was a much more supportive\u00a0dance<\/span>environment than what I\u2019d experienced in high school, which was much more competitive. It\u2019s been nice to TA for the tap repertory class here and be able to do a few of my own pieces and work one on one with professors on how to develop ideas. [It made me see that]\u00a0dance<\/span>\u00a0is an art form in its own right and [taught me] how to use and change space and locate yourself within that space. So I have Swarthmore to thank for helping me to understand what my relationship is with\u00a0dance<\/span>\u00a0and how it has shaped my identity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Molly will be performing for the last time in the Swarthmore student\u00a0dance<\/span>concert this spring with the tap repertory class, as well as a smaller piece she choreographed herself. She is approaching this piece in a similar way to the tap piece she choreographed last spring, which involved three of her friends who were graduating. Considered her fondest\u00a0dance<\/span>\u00a0memory at Swarthmore, the piece was titled \u201cUntil Tomorrow\u201d and was about friendship and the idea that people may not always be in the same space, but that experiences do last even if you\u2019re not always together.<\/p>\n

This time, that message will be for Molly and the other seniors in the tap piece, a reminder of the friendships formed over the past four years and the endless possibilities in the coming years.<\/p>\n

\n

Marion Kudla ’19<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There is no question that senior Molly Murphy finds happiness through\u00a0dance. Any of her performances at the Swarthmore student\u00a0dance\u00a0concerts these past four years has showcased not only her finesse and technicality in tap\u00a0dancing, but also her ability to brighten the stage with an infectious smile and an energy that radiates throughout the theater. Off the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":7450,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/academics\/music-and-dance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7449"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/academics\/music-and-dance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/academics\/music-and-dance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/academics\/music-and-dance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/academics\/music-and-dance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7449"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/academics\/music-and-dance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7449\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7451,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/academics\/music-and-dance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7449\/revisions\/7451"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/academics\/music-and-dance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/academics\/music-and-dance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/academics\/music-and-dance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/academics\/music-and-dance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}