Curtains open as the king, played by Lorelei Cosper gathers his servants to see his daughter Snow White. Then enters the Evil Queen played by Molly Maxwell, and we all know the story from there. The Dance Arts Conservatory, or The DAC, performed the ballet Snow White on April 5th and 6th at the Virginia Theater. There were other performances from tap, jazz, and contemporary.
The ballet was choreographed by Maria Genung, Lorelei Cosper, Anna Oates Schlaack, and Corbin Phillips. It follows the original story of Snow white with a little bit of few modern changes. For example, instead of using the 7 dwarfs, they swapped it out for miners. They also added minions for the Evil Queen.
“We changed some of the aspects of the snow white story to make it more modern,” said Adelaide Kota, a performer who goes to Central High School.
They began rehearsals at the beginning of November during the weekdays after school. Then when there were only 2 months left until the performance the hours became more vigorous and rehearsals started to happen on the weekends but still on the weekdays after school. Though some enjoyed it even though it was tough. “We started rehearsal in November, usually with just a few hours outside of class on the weekends. The last few months have added several more hours to our weekends and weekdays. I personally have been spending about 6 or 7 days a week at class and rehearsal since around February. The process has been quite enjoyable though, our teachers/choreographers were a joy to work with and most of the dancers are close friends,” said Sky Engelhardt, a performer who goes to Central High School
After the ballet followed a showcase of contemporary, tap, and jazz. Echoes was the first contemporary dance in the showcase, choreographed by Corbin Phillips, and performed to the song “ Burnt” by Kiasmos. The dancers were Ankita and Neha Bhargava, Julie Britton with her sister Mackenzie Britton, Iris Burov, Loreiel Cosper, Sky Engelhardt, Romeo Gimbel, and Molly Maxwell. The dance was inspired by the works and choreographic process of Shanno, a famous choreographer. The dance felt a little confusing as what the dance meant felt off, but I’m not familiar with Shannon Alvis’s choreography.
One dancer performed the next dance; Deborah Campbell. Normally there’s more than one person doing tap choreography, but this was a different perspective as only one person was doing it, the dance was called Runaway, a tap dance that was choreographed by Kyla Threlfall Brown and was performed to the song “ runaway” by OneRepublic.
Another tap dance choreographed by Kyla Threlfall Brown and danced to the song “ I Feel Like Dancing” by Jason Mraz; also had only one dancer performing it, was I Feel Like Dancing. This was accomplished by Iris Garcia who looked to be around 10 to 12 years old. Being in a group is easier because then you can copy off of anyone if you forget a step or the choreography. With a solo, you can’t do that, and memorizing the choreography is very important. So both of them did a great job of looking confident in their choreography and kept going if they messed up.
In the showcase, a little ballet performance was presented. The dance was called Springtime Soiree, and danced to the music of Tchaikovsky: The Sleeping Beauty, The Dancers were Lindsey Behrens, Katie Dunn-Yancy, Janiene Garcia, Madison Havel, and Emmaline West. Because it was a snippet from the ballet Sleeping Beauty it was pretty short.
The second contemporary was Capital U. The dance was choreographed by Lorelei Cosper and was performed to the song “ My Prayer” by Hugo Montenegro and “Faht” by Phish. The dancers were Neha Bhargava, Sky Enegelhardt, Katherine Kutz and Zoe Lindgren. The dance was alright as the dance felt like it was dragging in a way.
The next contemporary dance was Attach. This was a duet; performed by Boya Hou, and Ronhan Zong. Choreographed by Gwen Kaiser and danced to “Honeydew” by LSKY, Eske, and Garo. This dance was a beautiful duet as it showed the emotion of being too attached to something or someone.
Hot Honey Rag was an interesting piece due to its inspiration, “Nowadays/Hot Honey Rag” from Chicago the Musical. It was choreographed by Whitney Havice and performed by Willam Cable, Deborah Campbell, Matthew Kluge, and Bradley Woodruff. The dance was very entertaining, and you could tell everyone was having fun in their way, because the song is very upbeat and it has jazz instruments in the background.
Of Dreams and Nightmares, choreographed by Corbin Phillps, in collaboration with the dancers, and danced to various selections from Norman Duck, Arelius, Max Richter, and Sylvain Chauveau. With sound design by Corbin Philps, the piece was a work in progress that examined the space between sleep and walking. The dancers were; Mackenzie Britton, Lorelei Cosper, Sky Engelhardt, Adelaide Kota, Molly Maxwell, Brianna Miller, and Hope Pisarczy. Though the dance seemed pretty confusing, after learning what the dance was about it kind of cleared some things up.
The last dance of the showcase was Who Did It, choreographed by Lorelei Cosper and Molly Maxwell, and danced to the song “He Did It” by the Ronettes, the dancers were Iris Burov, Romeo Gimbel, and Gianna Wilson. The dance felt very lyrical and the song was very upbeat. and jazz-like. However, the dance felt slow and modern instead of having some rhythmic & expressive aspects. If there was more pizzazz to it, it would’ve been more to the song, but it’s also the choreographer’s choreography.
But how did everyone in the show handle school and rehearsals? Some used the time they had after school to work on schoolwork. Adelaide Kota said, “It was a challenge because there’s a lot in either genre, and I was lucky enough to have an hour break between school and rehearsals, but I also used my Sundays and afterschool time to finish the rest of my school work.”
But some don’t know how they did it and are now dealing with a heavy workload. “To be honest, I’m not entirely sure how I did that. I relied on a large amount of caffeine and mild sleep deprivation, though I will still be playing catch-up for a lot of my classes next week. “said Sky Engelhardt.
Overall the performance was a fun one. It wasn’t too long and it was a joy to see. Everyone seemed to have fun on stage and that is the one important thing. If you look like you are having fun or what you are doing looks easy, the crowd seems more likely to enjoy it.
Engelhardt says that they are pretty excited about what happened and hope that everyone who saw it enjoyed it. “I feel pretty solid about it. Everyone put a lot of effort into it, we’re all proud to share it with you all,” said Engelhardt.
