Dance is a creative, artistic display of concepts in human form. Manufacturing is a rigid, process-oriented system. Combining the two may not seem logical, but Emily Koledin, a senior industrial engineering major and dance minor at West Virginia University, is doing just that as part of her senior capstone course.

Koledin, from Hermitage, Pa., is using principles of lean manufacturing as the concept for a dance that she hopes to display in the concert “Celebration of Dance,” scheduled for December 5-6 at the WVU Creative Arts Center. The dance is her senior capstone project, which is required of all industrial and management systems engineering majors in the Benjamin M. Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources.

Her inspiration for the dance came from listening to music during a night of studying.

“I was listening to Pandora one night and ‘Breath of Life’ from ‘Snow White and the Huntsman’ came on,” Koledin said. “I thought, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, seven principles.”

Koledin decided to create a dance that uses the seven dwarfs to teach Snow White the ways of Six Sigma – a measure of quality that strives for near perfection. The dance will be set to the Florence and The Machine song from the movie and is a modern/lyrical style.

“Emily has a wonderful idea,” said Yoav Kaddar, director of the dance program. “She is very focused on her major in engineering? when someone is very passionate about something, they will be motivated, focused and dedicated.”

After her idea was approved as her capstone project, Koledin choreographed and composed her dance, assembled her team of dancers, booked rehearsal space and set project goals and a timeline for the dance.

Entrance into the “Celebration of Dance” is not guaranteed, however. The dance must first pass through three showings before a panel of dance instructors, including Kaddar. The final showing is the adjudication, which will ultimately decide if it will be selected to be a part of the concert.

“About four to six pieces will be ready for the concert,” Kaddar said. “We want balance in the performance, not all one genre or all large groups.”

To make sure the dance and her dancers are at the correct point in the process for the showings, Koledin uses some skills she picked up from her engineering background. She uses project management, project goals, timelining and lean reducing wastes to make sure she is ready to go for each rehearsal, and ultimately working toward the showings and adjudication.

“To have project goals goes hand-in-hand with having the showings,” Koledin said. “I think it helps the other dancers out, at least organizationally. I don’t want to waste their time or my resources.”

Koledin pulls from the choreography class she took last fall and her many years of dance to help make her idea come to life through the dancers. She started dancing at the age of five, focusing mainly on ballet. As she progressed, Koledin began helping with the beginner dance classes.

“When I taught before, I had to come up with my own lesson plans, pick out my songs, decide how long I needed to take on each element; I definitely think it helped in the organization aspect,” she said.

Kaddar said students who wish to show a dance in the concert must have taken a choreography course before.
“Choreography is research. When you get a concept, you can’t just go into the studio and create,” he said. “You have to do your homework.”

For Koledin, that work has been tough, but she is thankful for a supportive group of dancers that has helped her through the process. They help her by giving feedback during rehearsals about how a move feels or if something may be better, and help her see her mental images in real life.

Koledin is earning credit for her senior capstone course, but says that was not the only motivation for doing this particular project. She wanted to push herself to be a stronger leader.

“I’m learning I have more guts than I thought I did,” said Koledin. “That’s what I wanted to accomplish with this project, to get more of a backbone.”

“It’s wonderful to see how she’s grown,” Kaddar said of his student. “She has come into the light as a very prominent role in the department.”

Koledin says her dance experience helps her see patterns and spatial relations in manufacturing, but that engineering is helping her with critical thinking. By combining the two in one project, she says this is helping her creativity and training her to explain concepts to people in a different manner so they can easily understand it.

Koledin wants people to “not be afraid to take your major and make it your own. A lot of times we get caught up with school and personal life and separating them. It’s OK to bring them together.”

-WVU-

wbk/10/29/13

CONTACT: Mary C. Dillon, Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources
304.293.4086, Mary.Dillon@mail.wvu.edu

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