Sean Bjerke is a visiting professor in the Dance Department this semester, teaching both Hip-Hop 114 and Hip-Hop 214. Both of these courses explore techniques of hip-hop and house dance, which differ in style. House dance is a social dance and street dance, primarily danced to house music originating from underground clubs of Chicago, while hip hop originated in the Bronx.
Bjerke was a member of the biotech industry until 2017, when he took on dance and martial arts full time. He has spent most of his life in Massachusetts, as he grew up in Falmouth, attended Tufts University, and has been a resident of Boston since 2000.
His focus on house dance began when he was a first-year at Tufts. A friend had suggested he explore dance with the Tufts Dance Collective given his taekwondo background. He was first introduced to hip-hop, and then house, which reminded him of his martial arts training.
Prior to 2018, Bjerke had mostly worked with adults. Since 2012, he has been the director of Concept Artists, where he teaches individuals anywhere from high school students to adults. Right now, his youngest student is four-years-old, and his oldest is 72. He enjoys working with people who are “happy to move in their bodies.”
With his dance company, Bjerke engages with more experienced dancers that are focused on more performance style dance. He explained that their dance focuses on “telling a story with choreography through very difficult moves” compared to his children’s classes in which “you just have to teach them etiquette.” He is excited to work with adolescents, explaining that “older kids are like sponges. You can show them a lot of things and then they can surprise you.”
Bjerke has engaged in dance competitions with Dance Complex, and he has even traveled to Brazil to perform. He compared the way that he has his students at Conn perform for one another to how intimidating it was to perform in a different country. Bjerke has started to take a back seat when it comes to competitions, particularly with the World of Dance Show, a competition that inspired the NBC World of Dance television show, and the Dance Complex. He explained, “We didn’t know why we were competing… we didn’t get the feedback we were looking for.” While competition is “a good way to meet people and show yourself in communities,” Bjerke enjoys dance as more of a space of self-expression. Additionally, with a more “ramped up schedule” this year, Bjerke has also competed less in taekwondo, which he has been teaching since his early teens.
Bjerke was excited to teach at the college level for the first time at Conn. His students are mostly at the beginner level, but he has already seen his students’ skills improve in both the 100 and 200 level classes. For instance, he has seen the students who are “less experienced try to elevate themselves.” Overall, “both classes respond well to challenges.”
In each class, Bjerke has the students respond to weekly assignments in addition to class reflections. Based on the responses each week, he has noticed a “shift in attitudes” towards applying the techniques he has taught in class. In both of his classes, he will have students self-choreograph pieces in groups as part of their final assignment. In that way, there will be an opportunity for each student to perform.
Because Bjerke is a Boston resident, he commutes eight or more hours a week. When asked about how he copes with his commute, he explained that the initial morning drive is actually the easy part. “Driving back after I’ve taught, adrenaline is coming down a bit,” Bjerke said. At 6:30 AM on Tuesday and Wednesday, his “mind is in gear” for what he’s about to teach. “It’s manageable, but a challenge,” he asserted.
Outside of the classroom, Bjerke has been pleasantly surprised by how easy the faculty and administration have been to work with. “I haven’t had any issues … the hardest thing for me was getting used to Moodle for the first few weeks,” Bjerke stated. An additional challenge is really communicating with students. Due to his commute, Bjerke doesn’t have the opportunity for office hours or as much time he would like to have in order to meet directly with his students.
Bjerke concluded that “the students have been fun to work with.” While the energy level of each class ranges from class to class, he has been happy to be at the college and teach students who have also shown their respect for his work. While it is unclear if Sean will be back in the future, it has been a pleasure to have him on campus as a visiting professor. •
