As the days get closer to the final moment of school, everyone is prepping for exams and making plans for summer. But, let’s not forget what’s going on in school during those final days–like the dance recital that was held last Tuesday at 7 p.m. in the Little Theater at the Main Campus. The people who attended were surprised with such a performance, while the people who didn’t attend wished they did.

“I am happy to say this was a long time coming, and the performers did awesome,” states sophomore Jay Estrada. “I am the stage manager–the overall conductor with Mrs. Boyden to make sure everything goes well…and, it went amazingly well!” Boyden’s dance class presented many different genres of music ranging from  Contemporary to K-Pop, with such a wide variety of engaging songs. A group consisting of Nubia Cole, Mariah Sample, and Jamiliah Smith used Heartbreaker by Michael Jackson as their warm-up before moving on to their their epic performance to Run It by Chris Brown. Continuing was  a performance with a romantic duet of Michael Gaff and Emily Garcia-Reyes to the song Lovely by Khalid and Billie Ellish. Then, with a different change of pace, a group dance consisting of Ruqaya Gataa, Emily Reynoso, Adriean Rivera, and Melanie Saysavanh, showed their moves with the song Dahlia by (G) I-DLE. “This dance was definitely one of my favorites, just because I’m a big K-Pop fan and having one of my good friends in it, Melanie, sorry not sorry,” Estrada comments. This group dance was followed by another group dance, which included a wonderful change of pace with this up-beat song called Changuito Norteño by Poder Urbano, danced by Helen Celis, Araceli Melendez Ortiz, Ayelen Pichardo Hernandez, and Mozel Ruvalcaba. 

After an intermission, the performance had taken a turn to tap dancing! The whole class of dancers participated in tap dancing to the song Uptown Funk by Bruno Mars. Following the extraordinary delivery was a group dance consisting of Aniya McNeely, Kyanna Neal, Emily Ramirez, and Ariana Simbeck with the song called Wa Da Da by KEP1ER. Then a performance that left the audience falling off their seats in tears of laughter was a group dance that consisted of Sameer Barrios, Vinny Blackketter, and Michael Kissel with the song Con Te Partiro by Andrea Bocelli. Estrada contained his laughter while saying, “I was laughing so hard from this part of the recital, with Michael and Vinny in swimsuits dancing; it was hilarious!” The final group dance was another epic song of Michael Jackson’s called Blood on the Dance Floor, danced by Norah Strauch, Eva Thomas, Savannah Thomas, and Daviana Winfield. The finale of this amazing performance was a parting gift of the dancers to the audience with them performing a class dance of Brand New Day by the cast of The Wiz Live! choreographed by the very talented Mrs. Janie Boyden.

As the dancers and audience wrapped up the recital, Mrs. Boyden wanted to leave some everlasting remarks for everyone to hear. “Dance is for everyone! No matter your height, weight, sexuality, or anything. If you want to dance, don’t let anything stop you at all. Just dance!”