On May 2nd the San Dimas High School Dance Team hosted their 24th Annual Dance Show at the Bonita Center for the Arts! The show included performance from Varisty and JV, as well as the team’s soloists. Also included was a routine with various male athletes, three different routines of “junior saints,” and the dance class taught by Mrs. Ingram. Every dancer in the show, on the team or not, gave a spectacular performance.
Preparation for the Dance Show starts as early June when the team begins learning routines that they perform on the sidelines at football games. These short dances they learn are mashed together uniquely each year to create a spectacular opening number that the team does in the isles at the Bonita Center for the Arts. “Dancing in the isles is scary because I’m terrified of kicking someone, but I do really love it!” told Tess McDonald, a captain of the Dance Team. This year after they performed their first mashup, Junior Varsity took the stage to themselves to perform a routine they learned at USA Camp last July. This routine was taught to every dancer who attended USA Dance Camp and JV did an amazing job. After that, Varsity solely took the stage and performed their Choreography To-Go that they also learned at USA Camp, this routine was partly taught by USA staff members at camp, but the captains of each team that attends camp makes the routine their own. For instance, Farrah Carrey and Lilly Mendez were the SD Captains who took charge of Varsity’s choreography-to-go. However, the opening number did not end there! JV joined Varsity on stage for one last routine to end the opening with a bang. This was the routine that the team performed at the Smudgepot Rally and the football game that night against Bonita. “Mamushi was my favorite routine of the year so I was super excited to do it again!” said Jessica Liu, junior on Varsity.
After the opening the night continued with a spectacular performance from Dance PE. Dance PE had more routines in the show this year than ever before! Some girls on JV were even apart of Dance PE and the Dance Team routines which Lily Sanchez explained was “extremely tiring but I loved it! I only have one more year of high school left so why not do both!”
Both Junior Varsity and Varsity performed all of their competition routines in the show, as well as all of the soloists competed their solos. Also, per tradition, the seniors on the team (Chloe Yen, Soleil Multani, and Lilly Mendez) all choreographed their own senior dance with girls in the team. Chloe did a contemporary and k-pop fusion number, Soleil did a drag-queen number, and Lilly did a jazz number.
More student choreography was utilized in each of the junior saints dances for the show! The kids who participate in these dances come to different clinic were they are taught these routines, and then they perform them at the show! They are split into age groups and taught dances based on their skill level, each assigned to two different dance team members. The three routines this year were amazing!
There was a slight emergency during this years show as in Act 1 Tess McDonald broke her foot. Because there was no doctor, nobody knew that her foot was actually broken. She continued to dance for the rest of the show despite being in severe pain because she “did not want to let her team down” explained Tess. She danced beautiful and the entire team expressed their gratitude for her pushing through the pain.
The night ended with the last routine, their production number “Pirates” followed by bows of each participant of the show. During bows, each dancer performs a short dance with their Saint Sister before the team is announced one-by-one. These little routines are super fun and always pretty comical too.
Overall, the 24th Annual Dance Show was amazing!! “See you all there next year for number 25!” said Tess McDonald.
