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Dance Performance Paper

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Valerie Martinez
EDUC 389
Professor Johnson
5/7/15
Dance Performance Paper
The dance performance I went to go view was Gladstone High Schools and Slauson
Middle Schools Sixth Annual Spring Show. This collaboration of performances took place in
Gladstone High Schools gym, which is located in the city of Covina. I was on the Gladstone
High School coed dance team for three years and this performance was close to my heart because
I remember the year when put on our first spring show. Compared to when we had our first
spring show, this years spring show also had performances from GHS Show Choir, GHS Winter
Guard, Gladstone Street Elementary Dance Team, GHS Drumline, Hodge & Foothill Cheer
Team, GHS Jazz Band, SMS Pom, SMS Cheer Team, and even a special guest performance from
some of the dance parents. To see how far my team has gotten, and team members who were in
middle school when I was on the team three years ago now seniors performing for the last time,
was extremely heartwarming and filled me with so much pride.
In the past, the spring show was an event for Gladstone High Schools and Slauson
Middle Schools dance team to showcase all the routines they learned and performed during the
dance competition season. Along with the competition routines, some of the senior captains were
given the choice to come up with their own choreography and perform the routines with some
members from the dance team. At the end the seniors would be recognized for all their
achievements and contributions to the team. These traditions carried over for this years Sixth

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Annual Spring Show, but it was amazing to see so much talent from the youth of our city through
different forms of the performing arts. Whether it be dance, cheer, band, drumline, color guard,
or choir, seeing people from all ages performing was a testament as to why the arts are so
important.
The first dance performance of the night was GHS Girls Pom, which can incorporate hip
hop, jazz, lyrical, and kick line, utilizing pom-poms throughout the performance. Routines like
this are typically high energy, fast-paced music, and being in sync is vital whenever a visual
element is added with the use of the pom-poms. For example, the girls performing will usually
get in some sort of a line formation during the performance and do a wave-like motion with the
pom-poms. In this particular performance one of the added elements they added in the
choreography was having three girls balancing on their heads while doing the splits in that
upside down position. It was absolutely crazy and amazing! The third dance performance was
SMS Coed Hip Hop which included popular songs from today and with beginning/intermediate
level choreography. There costumes consisted of baseball hats and bandanas to accompany the
theme of the music they were dancing to. A stylist element they added to their performance was
tutting, which is a dance style derived from the positions people were drawn in the days of
Ancient Egypt. Today tutting involves changing the angles of ones arms according to the beat
and created visual pictures.
The GHS Girls and Boys Hip Hop performances were more refined and involved high
level choreography with some added floor work. These categories are usually very competitive
during the dance competition season so isolations, formation changes, levels, stunts, timing, and
fun choreography is essential to make the performance more engaging. The girls had sassier
choreography, while the boys hit it hard with more of an emphasis on swag. I have always had a

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preference and was jealous of the boys choreography in the past because of the aggressiveness
and power that is felt whenever they performed. Other dance styles that were performed that
night were jazz and lyrical. Some of my favorite performances from the night were the GHS
Captain Showcase Pom and the GHS Showcase Hip Hop. The Captain Showcase Pom
performance was unlike any I had ever seen before as it was choreographed to classic rock songs
like Eye of the Tiger, Bohemian Rhapsody, and songs from Linkin Park and Green Day. The
Captain Showcase Hip Hop performance was probably the most emotional performance of the
night. The boy who performed it was Christopher Rodriguez, who I had known since he was a
freshmen, and his piece involved some throwback choreography from the previous years and the
song See You Again.
The special guest performance done by the parents of the some of the dancers was also
new this year and it went to show that dance is for people of all ages. As a person who was once
a part of this team that became a family too me, I can honestly say that dance has the potential to
change lives. Dance changed my life and seeing my old team mates perform their last routine
brought me back to that day it was my last time to perform and really made me realize how much
I had grown because of this dance team. Six years ago I was once the new girl who had no
background experience whatsoever, but it was because of dance that I learned to become more
comfortable with my body, gain confidence, and not be afraid to just be myself. Seeing all that
has been accomplished in these past 6 years and the new faces that I didnt recognize, makes me
eager to see the people they will become because of dance. All in all it was a great night and I
couldnt be more proud to have once belonged to such an incredible team.