Many SAS students have watched the 2018 Dance Show, which premiered on the 15th of November. The Wizard of Oz-themed performances featured almost 100 high schoolers in a one-hour long show. Among the cast were two dedicated dancers that have been cast as the leads: Christina McDougall as Dorothy Gale and Ashna Vaidyanath as The Wizard.
Judy Garland as Dorothy Gale Frank Morgan as The Wizard (middle)
The show, named “Oz”, featured 14 dances, each choreographed by different members of the DP Dance group, which is made up of 18 dancers, and by the Dance club members. Christina, a senior who has been dancing since the age of five, was responsible for choreographing a solo piece and was also featured in 10 other dances in the show. Her dance was about the tornado that sweeps Dorothy away from Kansas and takes her to Oz, and it highlighted her swift and emotion-filled moves.
“The level of choreography is one of the strongest I’ve seen across the board from my five semesters in the Dance Performance class”.
Christina mentioned that this year’s show was great. “We’re not telling the fairy tale, storybook version of The Wizard of Oz, but instead a dark, twisted, almost creepy version. The level of choreography is one of the strongest I’ve seen across the board from my five semesters in the Dance Performance class. A new thing we’re doing is that we’ve added narration in between dances, and all the leads are well cast and incredibly invested in their characters”, she says.
Her commitment and passion for dancing at SAS have grown increasingly over her time at SAS. One of her favorite parts about being in the dance show is the community it creates. You can be a beginner dancer and still have fun doing the show.
“We’re spending three hours a day, five days a week with each other, so the friendships you make within the club are strong and lasting. You learn to trust people not only as dance partners but as friends as well as make tons of inside jokes”, Christina told of her peers.
Ashna, a senior who has been committed to dance for 13 years, choreographed 2 dances in the show, a group dance for the DP Dancers and one solo piece. She was extremely excited to take part in her last Dance Show of her high school career and is thankful for the experience she has gotten for the last several years.
“The best part about the dance show is the number of people that join the show, I’ve never been part of a dance community as large as SAS’s and we have such great facilities…”, said Ashna. She was thrilled about showcasing this year’s show as the group had been perfecting their performance for months. Ashna’s contentment with the final product is evident, as she expressed that “finally performing the dances is extremely rewarding because it is months of hard work finally being presented to our friends and family”.
Contemporary is her favorite style of dance, followed by street jazz, so we saw her bring out many amazing moves in the show!
Thank you for supporting the 2018 dance show! Be sure to catch the next dance show, second semester.
