The Dance Production class introduced their work to the middle school in a special assembly on Thursday, March 16, and two complete performances followed on Friday and Saturday nights. Through the dances, songs, costumes and a set that embodied aspects of nature, students expressed the theme, In Our Hands.
In the first act, the dancers demonstrated nature more positively, including representation of flowers and butterflies. The second act recognized heavier topics such as evolution, destruction and climate change.
Raquel Moradi ’26 said that the Dance Production class aimed to reveal the true nature of the environment. The performance explored many themes to reflect the complexity of nature.
“Our class tried to show the ways of mother nature and how it can be spontaneous,” Moradi said. “There were dances with thunderstorms and rain, but then we also had dances that displayed mother nature beautifully with flowers and butterflies.”
Moradi enjoyed how the class incorporated many messages into different dances, creating the opportunity to share multiple perspectives within one performance.
“For me, dance is getting to convey emotion,” Moradi said. “In this performance, each song had a new vibe and tone, so I could convey lots of different things.”
Joanna Xia ’27 strived to bring attention to global warming and its affect on the environment through the dances.
“I’m able to communicate a message to the audience when I dance,” Xia said. “I love the environment, and I wanted to convey that in my performance.”
Lila Wimbish ’26 said that dance production teacher Joe Schenck contributed to the performance by adding variety to the types of dances and songs included. As opposed to previous years, this production strayed from solely encompassing contemporary and lyrical dances.
“Mr Schenck helped diversify the performance,” Wimbish said. “Usually there are a lot of contemporary and lyrical numbers, but we had more creative types of dances and songs this year.”
Schenck values diversity in dance because it highlights many experiences and perspectives. He ensured that the production contained various types of music, dances, and costumes to portray individuality and uniqueness.
“Even though Dance Production revolves around a central theme, I always want it to have variety,” Schenck said. “I want the music to come from different genres, different voices, and different parts of the world. I want the choreography to include a variety of styles because everybody in the show comes from different backgrounds, dance backgrounds and personal backgrounds. What we see on stage needs to reflect that. Almost no one in the show had exactly the same costume because I want to show that no one is actually precisely the same. The most beautiful thing about diversity is watching individual variations that all make sense together.”