Most lacrosse stars don’t start at three years old. Not many toddlers are found on the basketball court, and a rare few tee-ballers end up in the big leagues. Dance seems to be one of the only ‘sports’ (define it how you will) that often starts so young.
A photo from the CHS Dance Body show, which both Solomon and Ringquist are members of.
The Neutral Zone, an Ann Arbor youth center located on Washington St., hosted a Lot Party on Friday, May 7th, 2010 from 7-11 p.m. The night was filled with eating contests, food, slushies, live music, break dancing, face painting, and shirt-printing. The music lineup for the evening included local bands Space Cadet, Kaustikutt, Sole Transit, Space Based Adventure, and Celsius Electronics.
A moon bounce was scheduled to be a part of the Lot Party, but wasn’t set up because of the pouring weather. Regardless, “The Lot Party was one of the most exciting Neutral Zone events I’ve ever been to,” says CHS freshman Erez Levin. “There was just this level of excitement that built up over the course of the night.” The turnout was great, with over 300 Ann Arbor teens who attended.
Earlier that week, many feared that the Lot Party and Dance Body Concert being scheduled at the same time was going to result in a lack of attendees in one of the events. On the contrary, it was not an issue for most students because the Dance Body Concert ended around 9 p.m., while the Lot Party ended at 11 p.m., and teens were able to drive to the Neutral Zone after the concert and enjoy both.
Dance Body dominated the stage of Forsythe Middle School on January 22. With about three weeks notice, Dance Body long-term sub, Alison Hurd, and the dancers managed to pull off an outstanding performance.
Instead of focusing only on the usual contemporary and modern dances, Dance Body spiced it up with a variety of different types of dance. Sophomore dancer Gillian Teall said, “I thought it was a lot more diversified than last year. You know, last year, it was all contemporary and modern. This year it was hip-hop and slow sad songs and fast happy songs, it was a lot more interesting.”
These dances included junior Annie Flynn running around in the upbeat jazz dance titled Awkward Turtle, composed by Squirrel Nut Zippers and choreographed by freshman Adina Nadler. Flynn ran around the stage as the awkward dancer, while the others wore different kinds of bow ties in their hair and danced in sync.
Nama Rivlin choreographed to a song titled “In The End” by James Blunt. In this love song, Rivlin and partner Hailey Keen danced passionately and at the end walked off the stage in opposite directions. On stage right, Rivlin walked to the side where the dancers wore white t-shirts while Keen walked to stage left, where the dancers wore black t-shirts. The black and white t- shirts represented their now separate lives.
Community High School’s Dance Body performed at Forsythe Middle School on Friday night. The following video is Sara Leon dancing to the song “Sitting on the Dock of the Bay”, a routine she performed at the performance on Friday night.
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