The first performance of Oxford College Dance Company's annual spring recital was equal parts a rejoicing of the human form and all the movement it is capable of and a student pep rally.

Acting out through dance their inner warrior woman, sexpot and romantic adventurer, the dancers undulated, twirled, stomped, skipped, leaped and shimmied their way across the stage to the beats of many different cultures.

Full to the brim with self-confidence and hope for their futures, the dancers and student attendees alike could only see all that joined them together.

 The realization that college was, in fact, the best time of their life and that youth and idealism aren't enough to overthrow decades of xenophobia, greed and anti-intellectualism hasn't yet dawned on them, making them all the more beautiful for one more night.

But for a few more years they can revel in the ethnic and cultural diversity of their classmates, imagining that the world they will enter into after college will be just as accepting of differences as the hallowed halls in which they've been educated.

 And that dream too is beautiful.