February 2015
Last weekend students
from our Advanced Dance program traveled to southern California for the
opportunity of enriching their performance portfolios. The idea for this trip started when dance
teacher, Shauntel Sussex received an invitation from her respective colleague
at Cortez High School, to join in on the trip.
This is something that they have been doing for about the past five
years, and the interest for this trip grew so much that three other schools
within our district joined in as well.
The enthusiasm was so great, that our students sold popcorn and seasoned
nuts to fund the highly anticipated trip.
It began with two professional
sessions at the Debbie Reynolds Dance Studio led by artists that worked with
artists such as: Ciara, Missy Elliot, Justin Timberlake and many more. They enjoyed two different styles of dance
which were jazz and hip hop. Next,
students attended a Disney character dance class and learned a routine which is
performed in the world famous parades. They
also received some insider information about what is like to be a dancing
professional with Disney and learned about their internship program for college
students. The outing was closed out at
Seal Beach for a day of relaxation and then finally to attend a professional
play based off of the movie Dirty
Dancing.
Ms. Sussex, was
overjoyed to see the different schools come together and for these young
students to collaborate about their mutual passion and even make some new
friends. It was such a great success
that Ms. Sussex plans to make this an annual tradition for her program.