By Alex Frey, Staff Writer
Sassy attitudes and flashy costumes are expected for the spring dance concert, which takes place Thursday (May 2) at 6:30 p.m. in Reynolds Auditorium.
For those who enjoy easy-listening music and powerful dancing, the spring dance concert is the place to be. The audience will be treated to a Broadway theme as this semester’s dance students take the stage. Tickets cost $5 at the door.
Reynolds High School students who went to New York in December on a dance trip came up with this theme.
“They were so engrossed over ‘Newsies’ and the other musicals that they didn’t want the ‘On Broadway’ experience to end,” said Reynolds dance teacher Evette Clemons.
The concert will have a number of acts from students in this semester’s dance classes, including the smash rock song “Every Rose Has Its Thorn” by Poison from the Broadway musical “Rock of Ages.”
But not all the songs fall into the metal and rock categories. There are a range of songs from musicals from “Fosse” to “The Lion King.” One special number will be “I Want to go to Hollywood” from the musical “Grande Hotel,” performed by repertory — a small group of some of Reynolds’ top dancers.
A crowd favorite figures to be the hand jive, which as they say in show business is “the encore.” All the dancers will come out and do that dance together.
The dancers, who spend hours after school Wednesday putting on the finishing touches for Thursday’s show, are excited and nervous. Pre-show jitters are expected, but the dancers always pull through.
“I really love “hell week,” junior Madison Allred said of the well-known term for final prep before big shows. “I get really pumped about performing. Dance is a passion of mine, and when I get to dance I truly can express the song through my movements.”
The costumes are one of the best parts of the concert as the dancers show them off.
“The hardest part of this week is figuring out costumes, piecing them together and just putting the final touches to them,” junior dancer Megan Bradsher said.
Each class has completely different costumes based on their Broadway musical. The classes chose costumes that reflect their individual dance.
“For example, in the ‘West Side Story’ dance, the class thought it was important for the Jets to look alike and the Sharks to look alike,” Clemons explained, “so they picked costumes that could tell a story to the audience as well as see the relationship between the dancers.”
For Clemons and fellow dance teacher Caitie Reece, the best part of concert time is seeing the finished project of the dances. The audience should look forward to sharing an enjoyable experience between dancer and audience.
“They will be wowed by the talent on the stage, amazed by the amount of dancers on the stage,” Clemons said. “Unexpected emotions and memories will arise, and of course they will be entertained.”