On Wednesday, April 3rd, M-A’s Dance Team hosted its annual dance show at the Performing Arts Center.
The sold-out show began at 6:30, but audience members began lining up an hour early, eager to secure a seat. As people filtered in, the stage projected heartwarming photos of the team throughout the year, and the audience chattered excitedly.
Junior Lainey Egnal explained “Our main focus when rehearsing is keeping up our energy and stamina, because during the show we’re often dancing back to back routines for two hours straight.”
As the lights dimmed, the theater went silent and varsity dancers flooded the stage. Spotlights illuminated the stage, revealing the dancers. As a mashup of Future’s “Life is Good”, Daddy Yankee’s “Gasolina”, and Tate McRae’s “Exes” began playing, red lights began flashing behind the dancers as they executed a series of perfectly synchronized spins, jumps, splits, and flips.
Following this, the JV team danced to their first performance––an upbeat mash-up of Ariana Grande’s “Bang Bang”, Nicki Minaj’s “Pound The Alarm”, and Taylor Swift’s “Style”.
Junior Abbie MacLeod said, “Many of these dances had not been performed since the fall, meaning that all of the dancers had to relearn these dances in their free time, and despite that, we were able to stay synchronized while dancing, which is always a really cool experience.”
In addition to the M-A Dance Team, the show included multiple performances from the Captivating Dance By Nona (CBDN) studio, with kids as young as eight participating. Their performances varied greatly, ranging from an emotionally-charged dance to Birdy’s “Heartbreaker”, to an exciting rendition of Pirates of the Caribbean, complete with white blouses, red bandanas, and fast spins and leaps.
After a brief intermission, CBDN returned to the stage, performing a rendition of Noah Kahan’s “Orange Juice”. The dramatic dance was set in front of a soft, glowy, sunset-like background that cast a soft, orange glow over the dancer’s skirts. The dancers twirled, lifted each other through the air, and leaped in sync with the rising tempo of the melody. This performance was definitely a highlight, exemplified by the loud applause and cheers reverberating throughout the theater as the dancers exited the stage.
The rest of the second half involved an assortment of dances varying in style. One dance that stood was the seniors’ self-choreographed dance to Katy Perry’s “California Girls”, in which the dancers donned pj’s and sleep masks to a sped up version of the 2010 hit song.
As the highly anticipated partner dance began, the dancers’ partners ran to the stage to the tune of “Falling for You” from Teen Beach Movie. Beaming, the dancers led their partners in a series of kicks, turns, and other moves, including the worm. To finish off, JV and Varsity each formed tunnels, through which each dancer and their partner ran and completed a signature move at the end, including waves, crossed arms, flips, and twirls.
The dance show is the final performance of the dance team each year, meaning it is the last opportunity for the seniors to dance. To honor this, the team displayed a senior slideshow, accompanied by ABBA’s “Slipping Through My Fingers”, while each senior gave a personalized message of gratitude to the dance team. Pictures of the seniors from the last four years were displayed on screen: dancers embracing others on the team, decked out in funky clothing for spirit days, and Pom-Poms in hand on the football field before their half time performances; all were accompanied by jubilant cheers as each senior showed up on screen.
Vuchic said, “It felt so good performing with my friends and just having fun and dancing together. Just like all performances, there’s a lot of behind the scenes work, but being surrounded by the best teammates makes it all easier.”
MacLeod added, “It was a really cool experience to see so many students and parents showing up on a Wednesday night to support our dance program, and I couldn’t be more thankful to all of the people that came to the show because it is always easier to find the energy to keep dancing when there is a large crowd to cheer you on.”
