Aliane Baquerot Wilson works with a group of Dempsey students and takes them through one of three dance styles they learned. Students spent the day at Hayes working with the instructors from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Glenn Battishill | The Gazette
Shane Carpenter leads a group of Dempsey Middle School students in a dance Oct. 18 during the district’s first Dance for Theater Workshop, which was hosted at Hayes High School and featured two professional dancer instructors working with close to 70 students from Dempsey and Hayes.
Glenn Battishill | The Gazette
Last week, close to 70 students from Dempsey Middle School and Hayes High School went to Hayes on their day off to spend the day working with professional dancers during the first Dance for Theater Workshop.
Dr. Dara Gillis, director of choirs at Hayes, said the event was held because she wanted to give students an opportunity to see the benefits of dance training.
“I wanted to do an event of this kind to expose our students who are especially interested in musical theater, many of whom have no formal dance training, to professional dance instructors who have worked in the theater world outside of the public schools,” Gillis said. “I wanted our students to see what they are capable of and also what training is required to perform at a high level in the music theater world.”
The students worked with Shane Carpenter and Aliane Baquerot Wilson from Infusion Dance in Worthington from 9 a.m to 2 p.m. on Oct. 18 in the school’s music wing and learned jazz, lyrical and hip hop dances.
“I could not have been happier with the results,” Gillis said. “We had over 65 students present for the clinic, and they had an outstanding day. I was very grateful to (the dance instructors) who gave excellent instruction to our students and who donated five scholarships for studio instruction to participating students. I was also very grateful to all of our administrators in the Delaware City Schools who encouraged and supported this event.”
Gillis said she hopes to make the event an annual occurrence.
Eighth grader Anna Gangloff said she signed up for the workshop because she wanted to get better prepared for school theater productions.
“I always thought dancing was such a cool art form and it would help a lot with theater, and I think it’s an important thing to be able to do as a well-rounded person in theater,” Gangloff said.
After the workshop, Gangloff said it was “a lot of fun.”
“It was really cool to learn these different styles of dances,” Gangloff said. “I learned how to dance better. I think it’ll help me have a better foundation for dance.”
Yelaina Tapman, a sophomore, said she signed up for the workshop to sharpen her skills ahead of the Hayes musical this coming spring.
“I want to be in the musical,” Tapman said. “I wanted to improve my dancing before I auditioned.”
Tapman said the workshop was “hard” because they constantly had to switch and do different dance styles.
“We had to switch and do something completely different,” Tapman said. “It was really fun.”
Wyatt Kumpf, a junior, said he had “a great time” during the workshop.
“I learned a lot,” Kumpf said. “I feel like I improved with moving powerfully. I really like musicals, and I hope to make it into the next one.”
Kumpf said he didn’t mind coming into school on a day off for the workshop.
“This is a fun thing I can do with my friends and it might give me an edge,” Kumpf said. “It’s good practice because (in Hayes Singers) you have to pick up choreography really fast.”
Ben Baer, a sixth grader, said he learned dance technique and dance vocabulary during the workshop, which he helps will make future theater productions easier.
“It’ll be easier because I know more stuff and I will be (more) confident,” Baer said. “It was fun to learn all the dances. It was challenging but that was a good thing about it because it worked us. I wanted to improve my dancing and get better at dancing because we’re in production, and I want to get better at dancing and work harder.”
Glenn Battishill can be reached at 740-413-0903.
