Feature

Centennial Dance’s Final Bow

Abby Conrad and Abby Rothrock|May 27, 2022

(Photo from @centennialhsdanceprogram on Instagram)

On April 28 and 29, all of the Centennial dance classes turned and leapt under the bright lights of the stage to showcase their hard work and talent in a culminating performance for the year. For some, the performance marked the first of many exhilarating shows, while for others, it would be the last time they would be dancing with their friends onstage.

Junior Dance Company member Katelyn Otten talked about her experience on the stage those two days. She danced in a total of eight numbers, from songs like Latch by Sam Smith to Umbrella by Rihanna. “It took a long time to learn the dances and we kept having to change them because of injuries but we managed and pulled through. We rehearsed every day before the show and worked on our dances trying to re space and make them as perfect as we could,” Otten said.

Rebecca Clark, the Centennial Dance teacher behind all the outstanding performances, agreed that the preparation for the concert was unique but sometimes difficult, which made it that much more rewarding. “I am always impressed at the effort each of the dancers put in to make the performance a success, but I think this year stood out even more,” she stated. “Because of covid, many of my dancers have never performed in a live dance concert before, and I thought they did a great job!”

One of the most memorable dances performed by the group was a tap dance to the song “bury a friend” by Billie Eilish, choreographed by junior Ellie Rowles. The dance was performed under minimal lighting, which provided for a moody experience: one that the dancers enjoyed, too. “I love tap,” Brandon Goldman, who is a sophomore and member of Senior Dance Company, said. “And the choreo[graphy] was sooo good.”

The last performances of all the great dances on Friday was bittersweet for each dance class, as it was the last time that the seniors would be performing in high school. Goldman said that “it’s sad to see them go since I’ve been dancing with them for a year. Some seniors I knew outside of Centennial, so it was sad for me to see those in particular.” Otten feels the same way. While she’s only a freshman, she has gotten to work with seniors throughout the year, and said that “it was sad at the end [of the show] because the seniors that dance with us will not be with us next year.”

For senior Zoë Worthy, a member of the Senior Dance Company, it felt like just another performance until she took her final bow. “It felt really like any other performance. I wasn’t really thinking about [it] being my last,” she explained. “The end of the performance was when [it] really hit me, when we were doing our final dances.” After a tough few months of fully dislocating her kneecap in April of last year and partially dislocating it this March, Worthy said that “it felt really good to be fully back to dancing. I missed being able to move around the way I wanted. I always have so much fun with senior company and I missed it a lot.” Worthy will be off to Towson University in the fall to major in Forensic Science, but will always keep the lessons she has learned from Centennial dance with her. “I’ve learned that it truly is how much you want something. What you do is up to you and everything is what you make it,” she noted.

Friday night ended with a memorable ceremony to celebrate the seniors, filled with tears both happy and sad. Worthy received hugs from her fellow seniors, a gesture that she said “really put into perspective how much people can influence each other.” Clark hopes that the Centennial dance program will have a positive influence on other students as well. “I’m hoping that the concert inspired someone out there to sign up for dance,” she said. “A lot of students think they can’t do it because they don’t have any previous training or experience, but the truth is, there is room for everyone and every level!” It is clear that all of the dancers had an amazing experience at the concert, and that the dance program as a whole is as bright as the lights on the stage.