Since the beginning of October, ETHS Dance Company, commonly known as EDC, has been tirelessly rehearsing for Elevate, its main dance show. This annual show was performed on the weekend of the 21st and lasted 3 days. The show featured a variety of styles, including contemporary, ballet, hip-hop, jazz and more.
The dance show was consistently good. Each dance was unique, but they all came together to make the show feel uniform and put-together. The 5 months spent preparing for the show paid off, as the dances looked incredibly well-rehearsed and the show flowed smoothly. Over the months spent preparing for Elevate, EDC created a large sense of community within the company. Adele Fammeree, a senior who’s been a part of EDC for four years, feels that the dancers “are all working together, and so that makes the community really supportive.” This trust and support play a huge role in why the shows are executed so beautifully. The dancers trust each other, making the show move like a well-oiled machine. Each piece had its own outfit, lighting and music that fit perfectly with the choreography, without distracting from it. Each aspect of the show shone in its own way but still worked with everything else.
One thing worth mentioning is the dance company’s fantastic use of props throughout the show. From blindfolds to fans to ribbons, the dances were enhanced by the sometimes unexpected decor. When performing a dance to Love is Blindness by Jack White, choreographed by juniors Molly Sheikh and Pia Larkin, the dancers started by wearing blindfolds and took them on and off throughout the dance. This was incredibly impressive and really spoke to the time and effort the dancers put in. To be able to dance without seeing anything is a hard to master skill. Larkin and Sheikh felt inspired by the lyric “love is blindness,” which drove them to use the blindfolds in their choreography.
This year, 15 of the dances were led by students. Choreographing a dance can be challenging, but it also ends up as a very rewarding experience. “Getting to see the vision that Molly and I had come to life was an amazing experience…It’s such a good feeling to see your dancers bring your piece to life,” Larkin comments. Every choreographer worked incredibly hard, and the involvement of the students in creating dances is something that allows for the dancers to be creative and take a more active and independent role in the company.
Overall, the dance show was spectacular. It was incredibly creative, and there was clearly a lot of time put into making the show a success. The ETHS Dance Company is consistently impressive, and Elevate was no different.
