Choreographers showcase creativity
(Left photo) Junior Kennedy Molino practices her Firebird while warming up before choreo rotations the week before the dance concert.
Music: Rosalía’s 2019 “A Palé”
Dancers: Senior Sophia Blake, senior Hannah Cheon, junior Leila Heard, junior Rio Gomez, freshman London Molino and freshman Kayla Son.
“So over time, the dancers gradually become more confident in the way they’re moving and more confident being not on stage, but just more confident being themselves,” Molino said.
(Right photo) Dancers featured in “3008” will wear all white, “We chose that because we thought that any lighting that we choose will reflect well off the white,” Valderrama said.
Music: Black Eyed Peas’ 2009 “Boom Boom Pow”
Dancers: Sophomore Liliana Sanchez, junior Lily Robinson, junior Tiffany Trejo, junior Cytlaly Ruiz-Velazquez, sophomore Shannah Gerdts, and senior April Benhumea.
“I just wanted to have a little break from, you know, all the sad things in the world and just kind of, you know, get away and dance,” Valderrama said.
(Left photo) Junior Rio Gomez leads her choreo for her tap routine to fellow DP juniors Andromeda Bruschke and Kennedy Molino.
Music: None. This acoustic dance is called “Ode to Rhythm”
Dancers: Junior Kennedy Molino, freshman London Molino, freshman Mollie Ward and junior Andromeda Bruschke
Gomez says she wanted to focus on the sounds that dance can create, not just the music. “I just really wanted to play with sound because I feel like in dance we focus on the visual aspects so much but there’s also sound [created by] dance,” she said.
(Right photo) Junior Tiffany Trejo also performs in fellow Advanced Dance member senior Sofia Valderrama’s hip hop piece, “3008”.
Music: Enur’s 2008 “Calabria 2008”
Dancers: Junior Ashley Garcia, junior Cytlaly Ruiz-Velazquez, junior Janely Lima, junior Lily Robinson, sophomore Liliana Sanchez, senior April Benhumea, junior Priscilla Cabrera, freshman Clara Mejia-Yuan and freshman Jazhyri Trejo
Trejo says the dance highlights the contrast between people at parties who just go on their phones and don’t interact, versus those who are the life of the party. “There’s the life of the party people who are trying to bring them into it and make sure that everyone’s having fun and that they’re all included,” Trejo said.
(Left photo) Junior Andromeda Bruschke runs through the piece “Girl Like Me” during the Nov. 18 rehearsal in the auditorium. During the show on Thursday and Friday, her dancers will sport neon tank tops to mimic a rainbow.
Music: Chappell Roan’s 2023 “Super Graphic Ultra Modern Girl”
Dancers: Senior Noelle Lidyoff, freshman Mollie Ward, junior Emma Enriquez, senior Katherine Timmerman, and sophomore Era Perez, and freshman Emma Won
Bruschke says she’d like to place an emphasis promoting independence and relying less on romance. In other words, just be free and live your life. “I wanted to do a piece that’s about something that’s powerful to me and something that I feel like is important right now,” Bruschke said.
(Above photo) Freshman Juliette Fiber-Ostrow performs her leg hold during “Queen Toni,” a melody featuring Braxton’s hits performed by Advanced Dance.
Music: Bruno Mars’s 2014 “Uptown Funk”
Dancers: Junior Gracie Holbrook, sophomore Ava James, junior Madelyn French, freshman Olivia O’Brien, freshman Brynn Throop, freshman Erin McLaughlin and freshman Isabel Mejia-Yuan
This piece is about finding yourself on stage as a person. “A small detail that I think is meaningful to my dancers is we start pretty far back on the stage, and then by the end, we end really far forward. So, it kind of symbolizes how you bring yourself up in the world and hold yourself higher as you grow as a person,” Fiber-Ostrow said.
