Senior Dancers Reflect on Final High School Dance Show

By Margo Moore

It’s Friday, April 28, 7pm in the LJ Williams. The show is sold out; hundreds of students, parents, friends, and loved ones make their way past the crowded lobby into the rows of seats in the dark theater. Cameras are out, faces swell with pride and excitement. A stagelight goes on, a student plays a rendition of the national anthem on an electric guitar, and the curtain rises for the show to begin. This will be the last dance show of the year. 

Why take a dance class? One Intermediate Dance student, Brooke Logan, ‘23, joined the class “last year because I needed the PE credits and I just stuck with it ‘cause I thought it was fun and something to give me a break in my schedule this year.” Another student, Evan Gonzalez, ‘23, in International Dance, “joined it because I watched the dance show last year, so I feel like that was really fun.”

Alastair Batchman, ‘23, another International Dance student, describes his dance career as “exciting but short.” He has been in this class for two years. “For that amount of time I do feel like I’ve had fun, learned a lot about dance,” he says.

Batchman has enjoyed the time he’s spent dancing. “My favorite part about the class we’re in has gotta be the dance show, it’s always the most fun and it’s a super exciting week, seeing all of our friends and family come watch us perform what we’ve been working on all year,” he says. 

The dancers took great enjoyment in working hard in their classes so they could perform their show. Logan’s favorite part was “hanging out with everyone and getting to learn the dance.” She doesn’t regret the experience “because it’s really going to build a memory I probably won’t forget, eventually, when I graduate high school and everything, I think it’ll stick with me, as part of my high school days.”

For Gonzales, he enjoyed “just the people in the class, the teacher really makes it because it’s really fun, there’s not so much drama, it’s just, we’re all just having a good time and dancing is just fun.” He says “it was just a great experience honestly I’m glad that I did it this year, I’m kind of sad to see all our work done in three days, but it was really fun, like, I wouldn’t ask for anything else”

“It feels very exciting, it feels good, I’m a little sad, however, it wasn’t a huge part of my high school experience, I’d alway just loved to do it on the side,” says Batchman. For Leena Aziz, ‘23, also in International Dance, her favorite part has been “getting to form close friendships with people in the class by getting to dance together.”

The students shared their favorite parts of their show. For Aziz, “my favorite dance this year was Stevie Wonder/Gloria Estefan. I liked the costumes the most and I loved the songs that we got to dance to. My favorite part of the recent show was being together before each show and sharing the excitement and high energy!”

For Gonzales, his “favorite part of the show was probably, I liked the boy’s dance, getting like a bunch of goofy guys dancing together is just hilarious to watch and to do, do that’s why I think the boy’s dance was my favorite part.”

Logan’s favorite was “definitely our JLo and Shakira dance, really personally that one’s my favorite, so just performing it was really fun.” She describes the whole show as “a little bittersweet moment, it was really good but it’s gonna be fun looking back on it.”

Each student has somebody who has supported them who they wanted to thank. Brooke Logan says thank you to “my best friend little Brooke [Brooke Hacker], yeah we danced together for two years, so yeah, really grew our performance together.”

Evan Gonzalez says thank you to “Seth Lopez, I cracked a lot of jokes about him doing dance, then he’s the one who got me into dance so I was like yooo.”

Alastair Batchman says “I’d like to thank Ms. Bardonnex for putting up with me, I do get a little lost every once in awhile in dances and she still allows me to stay and do all that fun stuff.” Aziz also says “Mrs. Bardonnex has been a great support system to all of us. I want to thank her for always makes sure we have fun and do our bests.”

What will happen for the rest of the year now? For international dance, there will be swimming, mushball, and kickball. In addition, “I believe we’re going to be doing maybe a group project or two, something where we kind of make our own dance for a grade and just have some fun with it,” Batchman says.

It’s 9pm in the LJ Williams. After a passionate and lively performance, hundreds of dancers make a final appearance on stage, facing a full crowd of cheering fans. The colored lights illuminate their faces and the curtain finally falls. The senior dancers have performed their last Redwood show.

Tags: arts, arts and entertainment, dance, dance show, entertainment, performing arts, redwood high school