ADV DAnce
Although I have taken dance classes every year since 7th grade, I decided last Spring to challenge myself and I auditioned for the FUHS Advanced Dance Team. To my surpise and ecstatic delight, I was accepted! On the flip side, it was the year of pandemic and distance learning but I was still so excited to challenge and push myself further as a dancer.
Junior Year-Fall
During Matilda I was cast as a Featured Dancer where I was tasked with more rigorous choreography. It was then that I knew I wanted to audition for the Advanced Dance Team.
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At the start of the semester, we hit the ground running in preparation for our Fall Dance Concert. Everyone had to audition with their own choreography for a chance to have their work be featured. Unfortunately, my piece was not chosen but it gave me better experience at choreographing and a goal to work towards! Before I had only done it in a collaborative sense but this work was all mine. I was determined to create something spectacular for the next show... but I'm getting ahead of myself! We're still talking about the start of the fall semester...
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I was in three pieces, including two student choreographed dances. The first one was by Vanessa Perez to Childish Gambino's "This is America." Perez wanted this piece to speak to the state at which politics were at at the time. We as Americans were still in the midst of Black Lives Matter protests and speaking up about gun violence. The piece became the embodiment about our frustration towards those topics. It was delivered through hip-hop choreography and felt very powerful.
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The other student choreographed piece was by Amelie Heying to Michael Bublé's "Feeling Good." In all honesty, this was my favorite piece in the entire Fall Dance Concert. The core theme in Heying's piece was about feministic ideals. She took a retro approach in which all the dancers were dressed as 50's housewives but when the beat dropped they changed to pant suits. Essentially, it was about breaking the way men perceive women and standing up for ourselves as females. Heying was such a professional choreographer and an efficient teacher. She inspired me to put massive amounts of effort not only into my dancing but into the piece I would knew I would choreograph in the near future...
During this semester, I also applied to the NHSDA (National Honors Society Dance Association) and I became one of the Co-Costume Managers.
Junior Year-Spring
After last semester, I was ready to give this one my all! I had gained about three times the strength from dance conditioning, as well as rollerskating so I wanted to choreograph a difficult piece for the Spring Dance Concert, and not just in terms of technicality but the story as well.
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I choreographed a hip-hop fusion piece called "A Soldier's Wakening" to "Dirty Harry" by the Gorillaz. Before we were even told the theme of this semester's concert (which turned out to be Dreams/Fantasy World) I knew I wanted to pick this song because there were so many different aspects that I could play with in regards to timing, rhythm as well as different genres. When I was told the theme of the concert, I immediately went to an apocalyptic interpretation of a fantasy world. In my story, I set the focus on a group of soldiers fighting under a post-apocalyptic regime. They are totally against this new order but can't find it in themselves to break free from the suffering. In the midst of the chaos, the soldier's general sends them off on another mission. It's a month long retreat which leaves the soldiers feeling ashamed, depressed and guilty. They're left to wallow in their severe unhappiness until a ballerina is introduced in the middle of the song. The ballerina represents the resisting protesters and those who are advocating for change in this dystopian future. The soldiers are then reminded of their life before the apocalypse and realize that they should be fighting alongside the protesters for causes that need to be tended to. The ballerina and the soldiers join forces in an epic battle against the evil and in the end are finally freed.
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The process of putting together this dance took around three months and I was so proud of the outcome! I really pushed my dancers and myself to tell such an ambitious story and we pulled it off. I ended up winning Choreographer of the Year because of this project and my attention to detail and design were recognized by my peers and the Dance Director.
Below you'll find the video of it from our Spring Dance Concert!
Senior Year:Fall
The start of this year was extremely exciting for me! Not only did I make the Advanced Dance Team two years in a row, I was also picked to be one of the Team Class Officers and my choreographed piece was selected to be in our 2021 Fall Dance Concert!
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This concert had no particular theme so I was free to choreograph about whatever I wanted. After I spent some time researching, I realized I wanted to choreograph something related to science and I wanted to play with stage pictures. So I settled on studies of the brain. I was really intrigued on how the brain handles difficult or scary situations. It can suddenly spiral you into a pit of anxiety or trap you in a state of shock! With my dance I wanted to communicate the ups and downs of the brain.
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I was given a group of 11 dancers to tell my story and was really impressed with their work! Each dancer brought something new and interesting to the table for me to work with.
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One of the biggest challenges we faced was prepping for an IN PERSON SHOW! Technically this would only be my second in person show in dance, and for a lot of others it was their first. The adrenaline fueled us into creating what I have been told was a "fan-favorite" of the concert!
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I named my dance "You'll Find A Way" choreographed to the song "You'll Find A Way (Switch and Sinden Remix)" by Santigold. It was a modern/hip-hop fusion piece. You can watch it below!
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In addition to choreographing my own piece, I was also asked to design costumes for a guest choreographer who's dance would be showcased in the concert! His piece was based off of the idea of molecular science and how atoms transfer power to each other. I was given reflective tape and told to create very angular designs on the dancer's black body suits. You can see my original sketches to the right!
Senior Year:Spring
We have already started preparations for our Spring Dance Concert and I am ecstatic to say that my piece got in! I auditioned a hip-hop/jazz funk piece called "Be The Change" to the song "Strange Timez" by the Gorillaz ft. Robert Smith. After given the theme Past/Present/Future, I knew exactly what kind of story I wanted to tell.
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I decided to expand on the world I created with the dance I had created for the previous Spring Dance Concert, "A Soldier's Wakening". That story already took place in the future so I thought it would be an interesting idea to expand on. With my new dance, I introduced a new crew of rag tag apocalypse survivors that live in the same world as the soldiers. They firsthand witness the work that the soldiers and protesters accomplish and it inspires them to spread the message of "be the change". They decide to take this message to the moon where they carve it on the moon's surface, so everyone across the world can see!
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It's a very ambitious storyline to tell but one that is relevant too. While the dance takes place in the future, there's a lot of themes of events going on today in the present. I chose the title "Be The Change" as it is a major theme in the "Strange Timez" music video, but I also was super inspired by the broadness of the term. My interpretation of "be the change" is different than yours and that's the beauty of it! I wanted my dancer's to pick what they want to be the change for and keep that in mind during the creation of this dance!
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While the story is something I'm extremely proud of, I am also excited for the costumes! I customized each design to match my dancers and the different characters they're expected to play. What's fun about it, is that they get to DIY their outfits with the basic structure I've provided! My original designs can be found to the left.
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Since this will be my last dance concert at the school, I'm going to push myself to audition a solo as well! This time I will be auditioning a contemporary piece to the song "Coraline" by the Italian band Måneskin. One of the biggest things that I'm passionate about is advocating for Women's Healthcare and Reproductive Rights, so that's the story I'm going to tell.
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