Next Generation: Angelina Gibson

Spearheading a dance company. Building a repertoire of original works. Striving for a future filled with shining a light on world dance and how art intersects with social justice.

Not exactly how you might describe the “typical” 21-year-old. But Angelina Gibson is far from typical. Gibson, 21, is a junior at Augustana University, studying music, literature and religion, and her passion for performing arts and its storytelling power have led her to her latest endeavor—the ArtiTänzer Project (ATP).

The college-based dance company’s most recent piece, No Man’s Land/War is Never Cheap Here, was performed on campus in 2019, carrying themes of social justice and the plight of sexual abuse of women in the military.

“When we come together, it’s kind of like this sacred little place,” Gibson said of the piece, which was conceptualized as a way to bring people together. “We don’t have a dance department at Augie, so it’s not taken for granted by us.”

Pictured: Angelina Gibson

The impetus for the creation of ATP came out of just such a need in the campus community—an opportunity to perform dance at fine-arts level. And since its inception in November 2018, the group has striven to build this into each performance.

Its name, in fact, was selected to embody the group’s collaborative nature—combining the prefix “arti,” signaling “artist” or “artisan,” with “tänzer” derived from the German word for “dancer.”

“We’re not just about performance,” Gibson said. “We wanted to capture that we’re about that open, collaborative process. Communicating through creativity.”

But this isn’t Gibson’s first endeavor in the arts space—she comes by it honestly, having grown up in Sioux Falls surrounded by performers of a variety of a disciplines, from her mother’s instrumental work to early ballet influences Amy Hofer and Raena Rasmussen.

That latter connection offered the opportunity to premier her first professional piece while still in high school as part of the LiRa Dance Theatre Company. “That was a life-changing moment,” she said. “I always knew I loved dance, but I loved, loved, loved to choreograph”

The group’s next project, Moving Music, will pair ATP with the Sioux Falls Chamber Music Collective, which features Augustana University violin instructor and particular source of inspiration for Gibson, Yi-Chun Lin. The work will integrate classical music and dance, building a series of pieces on topics ranging from appropriation to Japanese philosophy.

“For each piece, we try to find that synthesis between dance and music,” Gibson said. “Pushing those boundaries and exploring more hybrid arts and collaboration can bring forth a new way of communicating through art.”

ATP will present its latest work on the Augustana University campus Feb. 8, as well as White Wall Sessions in east central Sioux Falls Feb. 9.

But the reality of starting a university-affiliated organization is seeing it off come graduation—and with Gibson’s sights set on studying ethnochoreomusicology abroad post-grad, she sees only a bright future for ATP.

“Sioux Falls fosters the entrepreneurial spirit and doesn’t shy away from innovation,” Gibson said. “I see a real empathetic ear in Sioux Falls for arts in the pursuit of anthropological ethics.”

“A company is kind of like an ever-changing child—I hope they keep that fire alive and well... and continually fed.”