By Elizabeth Keane, Features Editor
Being a soccer player, senior Ella Marzolf finds new experiences through taking dance gym. She has taken dance one as a sophomore and dance two for the past two years. For this years’ dance show on December 12th, Marzolf was in the opening and closing pieces as well as “I Want You To Want Me” and “Celebrate.”
“We had more time to practice this year [than past years],” Marzolf said. “I think the show was a lot more structured and rehearsed.”
Marzolf is not used to performing onstage, and was therefore nervous to dance in front of the full crowd. Nevertheless, she enjoys taking dance gym because there is not a lot of running and she can learn basic dance steps.
Dance gym teacher and Orchesis director Melanie Monnich’s first PE dance show ran smoothly. She taught two dance two classes and one dance one class during the first semester.
This years’ choreographing process was complete with class time given to students to choreograph their own dances under the theme “movies.” The students performed their work in chosen groups for the rest of the class, and then voted on a google form to decide which dances would be in the final show.
Dance two classes had three student choreographed pieces each to represent them in the show, while dance one classes had two each. Each class period also had a class dance. For Monnich’s classes, she choreographed the class dances herself. For the other periods, Orchesis members took over and taught them the steps.
“I hope that [dance students] learn general creativity and that dance can be an outlet for them,” Monnich said. “Dance can be for anyone, not just the trained.”