The Dance department, along with the rest of the ASFA community, steadily prepares for the dance performance on Friday, October 28. Though attendance is required by the student body, there is much to be excited for as faculty and students have taken new approaches to this year’s fall performance.
This Friday’s performance will include a balance of classical, contemporary, and new works, according to dance chair Wes Chapman. The show will begin with Tchaikovsky variations, which include classics such as "Swan Lake," "The Nutcracker," and others, performed by 11th and 12th grade dancers. The middle-schoolers will then perform excerpts from Act One of ballet romance "La Sylphide." 9th and 10th grade dancers will perform excerpts taken from Act Two before breaking for a short intermission.
As the audience returns to their seats, the performance will take a less traditional route, exhibiting dance faculty member Margi Cole’s structured improvisation titled "Organized Chaos," with 7th through 9th grade dancers.
“Improvisation is a practiced skill,” said Chapman, “and they’ve been working on that all semester.”
Dance faculty member Germual Barnes has also choreographed a new piece entitled "ON THE FRONT," an homage to COVID-19 frontline workers. In order to prepare for such a heavy piece, medical professionals working on the front lines visited the school in order to discuss some of the hardships in their job.
The dancers will close the program with a collection of a West African study, taught by three different teachers. The final of the three was choreographed by Dr. yaTande Whitney Hunter from Temple University in Philadelphia. The choreography utilizes African movements along with a more traditional, contemporary choreographing element, blending the two genres.
Chapman expressed that he hopes the second half of the program influences the dancers’ view of the current world of dance and its broadness.
“In my day, we did classical ballet. That was it. That’s what the school taught. ... Since that time, the dance world has changed so much that in order for our students to keep up with how dance has evolved, we have to evolve as a program,” he explained. “My hope is that the dancers understand that with more opportunities we can give them, the more well-rounded they will be once they are outside of ASFA walls.”
Preparing for the show, Chapman gave insight on what goes into deciding which pieces and dancers to exhibit. The dancers are viewed within grades as their faculty considers what each group needs most before discussing how to advance them. Because of this, the goal of the Dance department is forever changing. Junior dancer Gaby Skrobis touched a bit on the students’ preparation for the fall program, as well.
“[We’re expected to be] intelligent, because your teachers could easily switch up combos on you. You could be learning one thing one day, but they’ll decide they don’t like it and have to restart it. Have good sportsmanship between each other and try not to tear each other down.” Skrobis said. “We started two weeks into the school year, and we just started putting ideas together. ... As the year went on, the combos and variations we learned were more solidified as we decided who was doing what. ... It was a very stressful preparation for this performance, I would say.”
The immense amount of effort put into the program is expected to come into a beautiful culmination this Friday. Wes Chapman expressed gratitude for the school’s support, saying, “The dancers, the faculty, the support staff really appreciate the enthusiasm the dance department receives from the ASFA community.”
He elaborated, “With such great support and enthusiasm behind what we do, it makes all the difference. And we do want our student body and faculty to know how much we appreciate them.” He hopes to see more on the 28th.
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