By Jakob Miller
Gaby Stark-Torrentera steps into the studio inside Lathrop Hall, where students chat and stretch, their energy filling the open space. With no desks or notebooks in sight, the room feels more like a gathering than a class, ready to come alive with movement. Gaby, a senior studying health promotion, health equity, and Spanish, isn’t here to earn credits for her major anyway.
“I just take it honestly for fun,” she says.
At the University of Wisconsin-Madison, this group of students gathers in Lathrop Hall twice a week — not for a lecture, lab, or seminar, but to dance. The social dance courses, open to all students regardless of major or prior experience, have become an unexpected haven for Gaby and others, offering movement, expression, and community in a way that traditional academic courses often do not.
“I think it’s nice that there are one-credit classes that are offered that you don’t have to have any experience to take, whether it be dance or other things,” Gaby says. “I think it’s a way to incorporate movement into your day-to-day life in a pretty simple way.”
Social dance is just one of many one-credit classes that UW-Madison offers to give students opportunities for fun experiences, whether it be playing the guitar, seeing live music performances, or, in this case, dancing.
Karen McShane-Hellenbrand, a teaching faculty member in the UW Dance Department, leads classes for dance majors and instructs the social dance classes for all students.
“I particularly enjoy working with non-dancers, because I feel like they’re so grateful, and they feel so cared for in our dance classes,” Karen says. Her social dance classes consist of students who have never danced, somewhat experienced dancers, and people looking for access to dance without the rigor of a dance-major course.
The benefits of a dance class go far beyond fun and improving one’s movement. “Students learn about time, space, force, rhythm,” she says. “It prepares them for a particular type of cultural literacy. You can understand the arts a little bit more, and connect to people who practice dancing as part of their cultural experience.” 
Karen also believes dance is a form of expression and directly relates to how we think about communicating in general. She says that dance will “cultivate your experience,” as being an engaged individual enhances your self-understanding and expression. She’s worked with Ph.D students in fields like chemical engineering who initially struggled to communicate their work due to shyness, but after taking a dance class, they later shared that they could confidently present their research.
“When you’re dancing with people, you have to act a little bit like stripping down,” she explains. “[You experience] some of the discomfort that you have being in social situations, but everyone’s in the same boat, right? Everyone’s learning together.”
Students become more of a community as the semester progresses, and some even become friends outside of class. Their interpersonal skills improve because they learn how to be in community with others.
The classroom environment itself encourages this growth. Each session begins with a warm-up in socks — no shoes allowed — and then moves into partnered dance practice. Karen guides students through sequences, starting slowly without music, then gradually adding tempo and rhythm until the room is alive with movement.
All sorts of UW students have taken Karen’s dance classes, even athletes on the Badgers football team. “They’re gonna work on physicality, what they love, the timing, the rhythm,” she explains, “but I think they also can focus on the joy of moving, rather than just the outcome of the performance aspect.”
The impact of these classes often lasts long after the final performance, a voluntary showcase for students to invite friends and family to see what they’ve learned and dance in front of an audience for the first time. Karen says that students have asked her for letters of recommendation and have kept in touch for years after graduation. Some students met their life partner in her class, and even asked her to choreograph their wedding.
At the heart of these classes is the idea that dance should be accessible to everyone. Karen emphasizes how rare it is for students to have access to dance in public education, with economic barriers often limiting opportunities for many.
“They get to college, and for the first time in their life, they are able to pursue something they’ve always wanted to do,” she explains.
For Gaby, the experience has been overwhelmingly positive. “I feel like I’m less shy about dancing in public. It’s such a great way to boost endorphins and just get out there. I feel way more experienced with dancing, and I could go to a wedding and bust a move,” she says with a laugh.
Now that she’s graduating, she won’t have the opportunity to take more classes — but Gaby encourages other students to give dance a try.
For students at UW-Madison looking to step outside their comfort zones, social dance offers more than just a class, it offers an experience that stays with them for years to come.
Jakob Miller is a student staff writer and photographer for the Division of the Arts.