By Natalie Bradford, Staff Writer

The Reynolds dance department has been developing themes, working on choreography and perfecting dances for months in preparation for the the winter dance concert, which will begin at 6:30 p.m. on Friday (Jan. 9) at Reynolds Auditorium. The entire concert is based on social justice and injustice within today’s society and throughout the past.

“All of our dances pertain to human rights or social justice. Everything revolves around that topic,” dance teacher Caitie Reece said. “We initially were going to do a concert based on points in history, and when we heard that social justice and human rights were the (arts magnet) theme for the whole school we just decided to morph what we already had planned. We stretched it a little, but we made it happen.”

There is a wide variety of themes addressed in the dances, ranging from gossip and body image issues to migrant workers and human trafficking.

“Each dance had research behind it, it wasn’t just, ‘Let’s make a dance about this,’ ” Reece said.

Additional work was put in even beyond the research that the classes did on the topics of their dance.

“Duane Cyrus and his company came in and did a project with with our Dance 1 class about soliloquies and you will see that in the show. Each person wrote something that was important to them and then Duane’s company presented a piece,” Reece said. “Our students took that experience and turned that into a dance for themselves.”

The dancers and teachers alike have spent hours on learning the dances that were choreographed by Layla Gaddy, who is new at Reynolds this year, Amelia Hailey and Reece. For several of the dances, students also played a key role in the choreography. The process can be both especially difficult and rewarding for those in more than one dance class.

“It’s really fun with so many people and learning different types of dances,” sophomore Tessa Bennet said. “Both classes (Ballet and Dance 1B) are really different, so I have learned a variety of things. It is a challenge trying to remember both dances.”

Added sophomore Joy Setzer: “It’s definitely challenging for me, but it’s worth it. It’s something that I’ve never done before so I really enjoy it.”

There will be 18 dances in the show with a brief intermission about halfway through the event, which costs $5 for tickets at the door. While most of the dances will be performed to songs, from artists such as Taylor Swift, Lorde, Hozier and Aerosmith, the first dance will be to a spoken word poem titled “Why I Want the World to End” by Prince Ea.

Whether they have been in Reynolds concerts before or if this will be their first one, the students are excited for the show, which is also led by senior student directors Cala Douthit and Jaiden Teague.

“I’m really looking forward to the dance concert because I feel like my class – and all of the other classes, for that matter – have worked so hard to pull off a great show for everyone to see,” freshman Grace Doughton said.