By: Julia Michaelson and Marisa Balanda
Many Hershey High School students train at local dance studios. These dancers work tirelessly all year round to prepare for their spring recitals, and The Broadcaster has created the ultimate guide for dance show season!
One Broadway Dance Centre
One Broadway Dance Centre will present “Tappin 16’” on Friday, May 6th at 6 p.m. and on Saturday, May 7th at 5 p.m. at the Hershey Theatre. The show’s theme this year is “Dancing the Dream.” The slogan relates to the opening number of the show which is “California Dreaming” by Sia.
One Broadway students spend all year working on technique. To showcase what they have learned, students are taught show numbers in the middle of January until the end of April.
HHS sophomore Azelin Thompson believes that hard work does pay off. “Knowing the fact that we [dancers at the studio] can create anything and influence any emotion with just our technique is worth performing,” said Thompson.
Hershey School of Dance
Hershey School of Dance will be presenting “Déjà Vu” on Friday, May 20th and Saturday, May 21st at 7 p.m. at the Hershey Theatre. There will also be a children’s matinee at 1 p.m. on Saturday. Throughout the show, the audience will notice repeated aspects such as song titles and artists, which culminate to form the “Déjà Vu” theme. For example, there are two numbers entitled Fire and Rain, but they are different songs. The show will include ballet, tap, jazz, hip hop, pointe, contemporary, modern, and theater numbers.
Many HHS students dance at Hershey School of Dance. HHS senior Larissa Martin said, “Sometimes people ask dancers if the late nights, long hours, and year round season is really worth it… in the end, it always is.”
E-Dance
E-Dance’s annual spring show will be on Friday, May 27th and Saturday, May 28th at 7 p.m. at the Hershey Theatre. The performance will showcase tap, ballet, hip hop, jazz, pointe numbers, as well as specialty styles like lyrical, jazz funk, and clogging. In addition to these styles, the E-Dance competition team will be performing group numbers, solos, and duets. One special aspect about E-Dance’s show is that many of the numbers combine multiple levels and ages. For example, one of the dances toward the end of the show has dancers from age eight to adult all performing a hip hop routine.
HHS sophomore Paige Randall said, “The whole idea of our studio is to have fun while dancing, and when you come to see the show we hope that the audience can tell how much we’ve enjoyed putting in effort and working on our dances.”
McCann’s School of Dance
McCann’s School of Dance will be presenting their annual spring recital on Saturday, June 4th at 6 p.m. at the Hershey Theatre. This show does not have a certain theme, but it will encompass a variety of production numbers. The audience will see ballet, tap, jazz, hip hop, lyrical, and pointe pieces throughout the show.
One of the bigger numbers in the show this year will be a seven-minute Aladdin piece. HHS junior Erin Wolfe said, “We’ve been working on it for so many months.” Wolfe believes that one aspect that makes McCann’s School of Dance unique, is that their show really focuses on the dancers and their technique.
Company Dance
Company Dance will present “The Company Project (TCP)” on Friday, June 10th and Saturday, June 11th at 6 p.m. Company Dance does not have a show theme. “It’s called TCP because we always have something to work on. It’s a project we just improve every year,” said HHS sophomore Deseray Hester.
The students at Company Dance started learning their pieces in the beginning of November, but they only have two nights to perform. Hester believes all the hard work is worth it.
Tickets for all of these performances can be purchased at the Hershey Theatre Box Office on the evenings of the shows.
