2023 Winter Dance Recital

2023 Winter Recital Talking Points

Welcome 

Before We Fresh

As we get about halfway through our performance this evening, I want to take the opportunity to express the value of dance education as well as explain some of the choreographies you are viewing this evening.  This not only informs you, the audience about what we do in our curriculum studies but it also provides the dancers backstage a chance to breath, change into their next costume, and have a drink of water before being ready to perform again.

At this point in the show, you’ve seen a variety of work:

• Jazz hip hop
• Tap
• Pointe
• Interpretive dance about what being quote unquote happy entails in life
• A traditional jazz dance where students added their own flare about moving on from something important in their lives and how that impacted them in a variety of emotions
• A modern choreography that used elements from various modern dance pioneers in the early to mid 1900’s as they broke free from the rigid structure and precisely technical terminology and execution of the ballet style and form.  The modern dance class studied and learned dance phrases by these revolutionary dancers. They include: Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey, Isadora Duncan, Lester Horton, Merce Cunningham, Twyla Tharp, and Jose Limon to name a few.

Now we will pick up speed again with a Jazz choreography entitled We Fresh.

Before Flashback 

At LI students have the opportunity to take classes for credit as well as just for fun.  We have 9 dance class offerings from introductory, intermediate, and advanced levels to Dance History, Improvisation/Composition, and Career/College Preparation for dancers looking to make dance part of their lives/career beyond high school.  We also have 4 dance clubs for fun – tap, pointe, contemporary, hip hop and NHSDA.

NHSDA stands for National Honor Society for Dance Arts.  This group does a lot.  Some of their community service includes: pep band movements during football games, create a piece for pep assembly, create lessons and teach Special Olympics kids or adult dance classes, create a dance book list for ages/grades to share with local daycares and schools, develop training programs/circuits for various sports teams, write letters to admin and state reps/legs, create a motto activity, develop and teach summer dance sessions for middle school aged students (rather than summer dance camp), or create an appreciation &/ advocacy activity.  This fall alone they have developed the “It’s Going Down” dance for pep assembly before the big game that opened our show tonight.  They developed activities and presented to the school in assembly about National Love Your Body Week.  And, they are preparing a workshop to run at St. J Sparkles at 10am on Dec 9th.

At this point, we welcome the hip hop club to come out and perform their choreography showcasing jazz hip hop moves that will take you back…please enjoy their dance called Flashback.

Before Never Never Land

If you ever watch dance shows on TV, hopefully they do the trick of entertaining you.  What tends to be shown on tv (not in movies) is what is known today as “contemporary dance”.  What is contemporary dance?

Well…it may vary based on who you ask.  If you ask a modern trained choreographer or dancer, they may reply that it stems from post modern dance and is a form of self expression.  If you ask a ballet dancer or classically trained dancer, you may get a response veering more towards the technical side of telling a story through movement and how important form and technique is in this new type of movement and choreography.  However, both and all of these various answers you may get depending on who you ask today are considered correct.  All explanations of this more recent form/style of dance lead to something similar - Contemporary dance blends elements of multiple dance styles and lets dancers express emotionality through movements and breath. Contemporary dance is a style of interpretive dance that embraces innovation, blending techniques from various genres, including classical ballet, jazz, modern dance, and lyrical dance. Contemporary dance is sometimes considered a form of storytelling, and dancers may use the medium to portray characters, replay events, or convey personal stories. Its routines may also communicate abstract ideas, such as ethical values, acceptance of self, and timely social issues. Costumes typically reflect the topic or tone of the accompanying music, and dancers often perform with bare feet. Performers may perform this type of dance to various musical styles, spoken word poems and songs, or silence.  All of the modern dancers I mentioned who influenced the development of the modern class’s choreography called Pioneering are considered important and influential people in the world of dance who helped Contemporary Dance evolve.

As a way to allow students here at LI to express themselves, interpret ideas/issues into movement, and create dances, Josie Rowell has run the Contemporary Dance club to do just that.  And, now they will share their work with you entitled “Never Never Land”.

Before Running with the Wolves

With a few more choreographies left, this will be my last sharing with all of your before I let the dancers conclude with 4 more dances and the finale.

Our next piece is called Running With the Wolves. To Run With The Wolves means to break free from something.  To let it all go.  To be wild.  To express oneself, explore the world/life around oneself, form own views and opinions, and be more independent.  In this dance the dancers will show this by moving through lots of transitions, having multiple connections and building relations with many peer, and having full body movements throughout that move on and off center/balance frequently.  This all shows their ability to take risks while knowing themselves but break out of the mold and be free like wolves do.

After this piece, you will see 3 dances that come from a very central topic amongst youth today – identity.

The piece Cage, is a solo by Josie Rowell. In this dance she wants her audience to know that identity is not solely based on physical appearance.  We are all on a journey of inward self discovery. 

After her work, Jazz Dance students will perform Breaking Through The Haze which represents the struggle to find one’s path in life, the need to feel connection to others, but the desire to figure out who we are internally.

And, finally, in celebration of National Love Your Body Week, Dance Company will close the show with Home In Me.  This piece is a blend of song and text.  We used inspiration from Maya Angelou’s poem “Touched by an Angel” to create movements that represented our flaws we grapple with every day and lyrics like “We are Home” to find comfort and peace in our strengths and beauties.  This dance showcases individual desire to not be negatively impacted by what we and others perceive as our imperfections but see ourselves as incredible, unique, and special human beings.  We all matter and have a place on this earth to be valued, loved, and cherished.

Thank you so much for taking time this evening to come to our Winter Dance Recital.

We hope you will enjoy the rest of our performance and recognize the specialness amongst you and those around you each and every day.