At the Norton Museum on Sept. 29, hundreds of people watched members of the dance department perform an intricate routine. Before they could take the stage, weeks of rehearsals helped to prepare the dancers for this moment.
The dance department instructional leader, Heidi Sperounis, coached the dancers during 7th period for the performance, implementing choreography from director Jon Lehrer and associate director Cristiana Cavallo (CeeCee), of the Jon Lehrer Dance Company.
“The students [dancers] had a chance to work with the guest choreographer last year, not only just for master classes, but we also had a piece with him last year,” Sperounis said. “It’s exciting because it is quite physical and athletic, and for the dancers to be able to fly around the room, but of course, there is technique to it.”
By learning from professionals, the dancers had the ability to correct their mistakes and refine their skills. This unique experience had a strong impact on dancers and teachers alike.
“It actually impacted my class a lot, and I think the other teachers could say the same,” Sperounis said. “Having a lot of the information come from another person, the students hear it, and it makes them want to do it more.”
The dance teachers worked with students to continuously help the dance students master the choreography, but the dancers also believe they put hard work and effort into this piece.
“We’re constantly practicing, rerunning,” said seventh-grade dance major Ella Torrone. “The Norton performance is split into two casts, Cavallo’s cast and Lehrer’s cast. CeeCee’s cast will perform it with the proper counts, and Jon’s cast will, and then we’ll go over the counts to make sure everybody’s doing it together.”
The dancers are used to learning skills from their dance coaches at school, but they get a change in routine when the department brings in guest choreographers. The dancers had a limited amount of time to memorize and refine the piece for Lahrer and Cavallo’s arrival in late September. They were on campus in late August to early September to teach the piece to the dancers.
Alyssa Schuler, 7th grade dance major said, “I learned how to pick up choreography really quickly. Jon and CeeCee taught it to us really fast. We only had two days to learn it and because it’s a longer piece, we had to pick it up quicker.”
Students, teachers and others came to watch the dancers perform at the Norton Museum after lots of practice and perfection.
“I think I did really good, but as a group we did even better.” Schuler said.
