By Diana Leane
Executive In-Depth
Senior Karolina Wisniewska prepared anxiously backstage as she waited for the Prospect dance show to start. Wisniewska is a gym dance veteran; this is her third year taking dance as her gym class. This year she was under more pressure than usual because she was given a solo in her class dance.
Wisniewska was one of about 200 students who performed in the dance show on Dec. 18. The three dance teachers, Carrie Black, Kristin Burton and Krystina Leazer, were in charge of the show.
Teaching the dances and organizing all of the students was easier than last year’s shows because now there are three gym dance teachers instead of two with the new addition of Leazer.
“It’s hard to control 200 students and to do a show in an organized fashion,” Black said. “Adding one more person helps with organization.”
For months the students worked both in and out of class on several dances. Two points of stress for Wisniewska were knowing when to go on stage and memorizing the counts for all of her dances.
“If we mess up people don’t understand that we do put a lot of effort into our dances,” Wisniewska said.
Every year the show is themed, and this show’s theme was the different decades of dance. Each class received a decade, and students auditioned dances that matched that decade earlier in the semester.
Students learned one of the chosen dances in their class period, along with several other dances including a class dance and opening and closing dances. After spending the entire semester on these dances, the show served as the students’ finals.
“I think [dance gym class] is better [than regular gym class] because you actually have something to work for towards the end of the [semester],” Wisniewska said.