By Rachel Phillips
Photos by Ashley Le
Last Saturday the entire FVHS dance team performed an impressive series of competition routines in a showcase for parents, family, and friends to see the talented award-winning performances.
For many of the dancers, this was their last dance team performance of their high school careers. Throughout the night, Jennifer Allen, dance team adviser, read short student-written bios about each graduating senior, remembering and celebrating their memories as part of the dance team.
The evening began with a synchronized lyrical routine performed by the Varsity Jazz team. The audience was stunned for the first time with enormous kicks, impressive turns, and fascinating unified movements as the team moved together as one across the gym floor.
Several soloists performed throughout the evening; the first two of the night were team captains Alyssa Loefflman (‘14) and Amanda Kolb (‘14), who led their team to final at USA Nationals this year. Alyssa and Amanda dazzled the audience with beautiful but opposite jazz routines, as Alyssa performed a dark, jazz piece and Amanda danced to a lighter, instrumental composition. Each was almost angelic in their movements as they leaped and kicked across the floor in perfect harmony to the tracks playing above them
In the second half, the lyrical team took the stage once again for a spectacular performance of their award-winning number, set to “Only You,” by Delilah. The same routine they performed at the Winter Assembly much earlier, the performance highlighted many dancers as part of the cohesive group.
The second half also included several more solo performances, including one by remaining captain Becky Santillanes (‘14). Set to a spooky version of the classic Willy Wonka theme song, “Pure Imagination,” Santillanes performed a smooth jazz solo, complete with high kicks and tremendous turns.
The hip hop teams also came out and supplied great performances that gave variety to the 2-hour showcase. In particular, the all boys’ hip hop group was impressive; although their numbers were small, leader Peter Pham (‘14) choreographed routines that highlighted many of the new dancers’ skills that worked spectacularly with the music.
A special part of the performance for both the students and the audience occurred when all 48 dance team members came onstage to perform two separate routines that were all student choreographed. Clad in denim and blue shirts, the team flawlessly executed choreography created by groups of students, and taught by those students to the entire group. The “FVHS Dance Choreography” segment of the show was a fantastic demonstration of all that our dancers can do outside of simple performances.
The dance team will be holding auditions for both their lyrical and hip hop teams this week, with practices from Monday to Wednesday and auditions on Thursday for Jazz, and Friday for hip hop.
