By: Anastasiia Tkachuk
Redwood was the first school to have a dance program and students from other high schools would come to be on the dance team.
As time went on, the various Visalia Unified high schools created individual dance programs. To this day, Redwood continues to hold the biggest dance program in the district.
Dance Force is a group of Redwood’s most elite dancers. They usually perform at different events including football games.
Photo courtesy of Bryann Block
Bryann Block ‘23 has been dancing from a young age. She became a participant of Dance Force when she came to Redwood four years ago as a freshman.
When reflecting on her favorite part of dancing at Redwood, Block says she loves, “being able to interact with the student body and being able to perform at football games.’’
When looking at the differences between dancing at a studio and dancing at Redwood, Block says it is different as, “it’s very involved with the school and we do a lot of different performances that are school based.”
Dance Force has a lot of performances as Block says, “we spend a lot of time in class practicing and outside the class practicing.” Block says that the team is already working on the performance for the annual Cowhide football game.
When asked about the problems her dance team faces Block says, ‘“There were struggles when we needed to get performances together very quickly and create really interesting dances.’’
Sarah Sozhino ‘26, joined Dance Force this year. She says she likes the atmosphere in the team very much. Sozhino says she, “like[s] being able to perform for the students and at the football games.
Sozhino says she was, “so welcomed to start” as she says that, “People in school dance like a family.”
Tags: arts & entertainment, dance, dance force, redwood gigantea, redwood journalism, rhs