The lights are dimmed, and it’s eerily quiet in the Performing Arts Center. Everyone is eagerly waiting for the next dance to start. As the dancers walk onto the stage floor, cheering erupts through the crowd, from both students and parents. As the dancers take their spots on the stage, the audience cheers and the West High Dance Department’s 10th Annual Fall Dance Showcase begins.

    This year’s Fall Showcase happened on Wednesday, Sept. 27, and consisted of the 2022-2023 Intermediate and Advanced teams. The Dance Department holds these fall showcases to show everyone a “sneak peek” of the potential for the January Showcase— the Dance department’s biggest show that lasts three days. 

   Since the Fall Dance Showcase is a preview of the January show dances, most of the dances were around 1- 1½ minutes, while most dances in the January show are a minimum of 3 minutes long, and include Beginning dancers. The fall dances were learned and choreographed during the summer. Countless days, sweat, and tears went into making this fall showcase the best it possibly could be.    

   Giselle Marthinu (10), currently an intermediate dancer, choreographed some dances in the previous January showcase. She expressed the dance department as her “second family and second home. . . the atmosphere at the dance department is so comforting.” Marthinu has been part of the dance department for 2 years— last year in beginning dance, and this year in intermediate. She found her passion in choreographing the dances, even though it may be difficult at times. “The hardest part of choreographing is adjusting to all 22 people’s likings, that really gets to you because we are all different,” Marthinu explained. She hoped that the dance department would inspire many others to give dance a try.

   Advanced dancers, who also performed during the showcase, showed some new dances they learned throughout the summer and at Glendale Camp. Glendale camp is mostly hip-hop dances, and since the dancers learned some new dances this year, they also decided to incorporate them in this showcase, and the next. 

   Misa Cohen (12) has been in Advanced Dance since her freshman year at West. Cohen is also a teaching assistant for the Intermediate team this year. Cohen described her favorite part of the dance department as “being able to collaborate with other dancers and have opportunities to choreograph dances.” In her final year being part of the dance department, Cohen is excited to be able to show the audience what the dance department is and go on one last ride with her Advanced teammates. 

    The Showcase left everyone buzzing with excitement for the upcoming January showcase. As the Dance department continues to thrive and inspire others, there’s no doubt this year’s January and May showcase has a lot of potential.