Performance Arts Feature: Jensen Ghidella ’22

For the average person, developing a talent for writing, dancing, acting, or choreographing seems an obtainable pursuit, but to simultaneously develop skills in each subject takes far more ambition and drive.

Jensen Ghidella ’22 is creative at heart. She excels in writing as an English major and in the performing arts with her minor in Theater and Dance — Ghidella adds her own artistic twist to most everything she does. 

From choreographing performances for Colby Dancers to creating a complex critical performance on surveillance and control in art gallery spaces, Ghidella’s creativity reaches far and wide. 

She did not plan on participating in theater or dance upon arriving at college, however. 

“I didn’t come to Colby thinking I would be part of theater and dance at all, which is kind of silly looking back, but I thought I was going to be a bio major,” Ghidella said, “so I wasn’t really paying attention to the arts with what schools I was applying to, like if they had big arts programs or dance programs.” 

Shortly enough, she recognized the gravity of her decision and made her way back to the arts. 

“I think for me, it’s more of just, yeah, I could have wanted something better but I didn’t even think to think about it until I was here and until I was realizing ‘oh, this is something I am really passionate about, this is something in my life that I want to pursue, like something in my life I want to do,” Ghidella said. 

Since the primary extracurricular focus at the College tends to fall on athletics, there is less of an emphasis  on the arts. This disparity means the Department of Theater and Department and the individuals involved oftentimes face a lack of representation and resources on campus. 

“It’s funny because it’s a liberal arts school, but there’s very little emphasis on the arts,” Ghidella said. “They’re focused on athletics more, which is great but especially this semester, I’ve been hearing a lot about how people who work in the department aren’t being listened to for what the new building should have and just various things of that nature.”

“So that’s an interesting thing that public administration and the more front-facing, more public part of Colby is making these decisions, so the school looks good and so the building looks nice, flashy, and pretty,” Ghidella continued, “but in terms of the actual department, they have a lot of issues with the new building and a lot of things that they’re frustrated by.”

For students in the Theater and Dance Department, this underrepresentation can be discouraging at times. 

“It’s kind of sad … I understand that you can’t have amazing everything, [that’s] just life, but I think it would be nice to have the arts more present around campus,” Ghidella said.

Even though the College has a few programs meant to foster the arts, the rate of involvement remains low. 

“There’s Colby Dancers which I’m involved with, and there’s Colby Dance Company, but those aren’t huge parts of the campus,” she explained. “There’s mostly a specific population of students who go to both of the shows and pay attention to them when those things are happening, but that’s not really schoolwide. And I don’t know; I just think it would be fun if more people knew about it and got involved with it.”

During the fall, Ghidella created an emotionally moving performance called “Moving through the Galleries” for a class final project. In the performance, she chose to explore how museums surveil their guests by criticizing many of the things that galleries often prohibit.

“There’s a lot of things not allowed in the galleries, like you can’t touch the art, you can’t rough-house or anything, and obviously, a lot of these things make sense,” Ghidella said. “You don’t want to damage the art that everyone comes to see, but I just thought it was interesting that it got to the point where, since the art was so valuable, by definition, your own body becomes a threat and becomes not valuable.”

During the performance, she wore a white button down and tie and a pair of glittery roller skates where she sat on a stool, flashing  posters emblazoned with words “Skates On” and “Skates Off,” inspired by a group of protestors from the 90s that flashed similar signs at surveillance cameras. 

“I just wanted to play with our inner child and our inner security guard, and that’s why I decided to wear this white button down and this tie to kind of mimic what security guards would be wearing, and I had these glittery skates and so I wanted there to be a contrast there,” Ghidella explained. “I just wanted to give people things to think about and visuals that were weird and interesting like ‘why choose to wear skates in a gallery,’ well precisely because that’s not something you would see there.”

“I would show the security camera ‘Skates On’ and then ‘Skates Off’ and I moved through five galleries and the first four, I would pretend that I was about to get up and then I wouldn’t get up, and then I would take them off, say ‘Skates Off,’ then I think I kept mixing up whether I would put the sign first or do something with my skates first, but then I would pick everything up, I would take off my skates and I tried to have this very ritualistic thing where I would do the same thing very ritual and repeat it, like I wanted to have a repeated movement sequence,” Ghidella said. 

Upon finishing, she never expected the positive reactions she received. 

“When I ended the performance, I almost cried out of relief because I was so stressed about falling, and then I stood up and didn’t fall,” Ghidella said. “But when I finished it, this old woman came up to me and she was like, ‘I almost cried during your performance, I so badly just wanted you to stand up and I was so glad you stood up in the end,’ and I was not expecting anyone to come to me at all, I was not expecting anyone to say anything, and so the fact that I had an emotional effect on someone, was really cool, and I was really touched.

To Ghidella, creative expression is the one aspect of humanity that we can all share in and enjoy. For her, it’s what makes life bearable.

“I think creative expression is the thing that brings people together. Like when I think of people connecting, I think of people sharing stories, going to performances together, but even just cooking with someone, that’s a creative endeavor,” she said. “No matter where you are in the world, creativity and art need to be present for people to feel whole and like life is worth living because life is hard, and I think art is what makes it bearable.”

~ Jenna Boling ’24