The Dance Center reopened this fall with a mix of in-person and hybrid classes in styles ranging from ballet to soca. After a year of dancing at home in front of screens, many students are celebrating the return to the studio.

Among them was Akarsh Raghunath, a Ph.D. student from New Delhi, who jumped at the chance to learn bharatanatyam, a form of Indian classical dance, in person. “The beats of the music, movement of the body, and consciousness of space, along with the discerning eye of the teacher, cannot be best experienced online,” Raghunath said. “Dance is a community experience.”

Reaction to the studios reopening has been overwhelmingly positive, according to Elizabeth Epsen, communications and programs coordinator of the Dance Center.

“The Dance Center is a home for so many,” Epsen said. “And after a year of dancing in our living rooms, kitchens, dorm rooms, tennis courts, parks, and Harvard lawns, to be able to dance and move together in these specialized spaces for dance has been a great source of joy, inspiration, and relief.”