As dancers intricately sequence their every move, the art of choreography is presented through a synchronized display.
Students in Advanced Dance learn the elements of choreographing and dance routines. Each dance carries a message and is crafted to smoothly transition from one movement to the next.
“It is fundamental to understand the story that you’re trying to convey because there’s always a message that you’re trying to deliver to your audience. It’s also important to try to match your movement to the rhythm and the lyrics of the music,” senior Janki Kothari said. “If it isn’t lining up, the choreography doesn’t look very well. It’s a matter of rhythm to the story that you’re trying to show.”
Collaboration and collective engagement from all participants is essential to choreographing. In Advanced Dance, students need to coordinate with one another in order to execute specific movements.
“Teamwork and involvement are super, super important. That’s really all choreographing is about. As a group, we all need to be involved together,” freshman Riley Russo said. “Just working together and everyone helping out makes it better and easier for the whole rest of the dance. You also learn a life skill on how to work well with other people and to see different points of views.”
Dancers have their own unique style when it comes to their preferences and strengths. Despite their contrasting styles, the students unite their creativity and diverse talents to choreograph their pieces.
“We have a lot of input from everyone and we test their ideas out,” Russo said. “It’s a lot to combine and think about but at the end, it creates a special sense of accomplishment and fulfillment.”
Each dancer has a different viewpoint on how to express a certain song or genre. The different moves and transitions each person comes up with vary based on their likes and dislikes. At the end of a routine, dancers feel a distinct sense of achievement.
“It’s a feeling of satisfaction like you achieved something. In choreography, you put all of your emotions into a piece and that is basically your way of expressing yourself with creativity,” Kothari said. “When you come up with something that matches the music very well and looks good, it’s like ‘Wow, I just did that.’ It’s very cool and satisfying to be able to choreograph a good piece at the end and then put it on stage for people to enjoy.”
Advanced Dance is currently preparing for the Winter Wishes Concert where the class will have a short performance in the show. The concert will be performed November 16-17 at the Performing Arts Center.
“Our theme is wishes or winter wishes, so we’re going to have a story in our pieces that will motivate people. As we make the dance, we look at the progress and when we finish the piece, hopefully it looks nice,” sophomore Jenny Xie said.
