Last weekend was Del Sarte Dance Club’s Spring Dance Recital: Dance ‘Til Dawn. The two shows, one on Friday, March 30 at 7 p.m. and another on Saturday, April 1 at 2 p.m., took place at Oswego High School.
The Del Sarte dancers opened up the show with a jazz dance to “Diggy” by Spencer Ludwig, which was followed by a hip-hop dance to “1, 2 Step” by Ciara, choreographed by Carmellie Gorres.
The recital was full of amazing mashups, remixes and fantastic choreography. All of the dancers had amazing timing, precision and focus, despite having much less time to practice: Eight weeks this semester as opposed to the 14 weeks they had last semester. They never stopped dancing for a moment, even when a tap shoe came off during one dance and shoelaces came untied in another.
In almost every single dance, the audience could see and feel the energy and emotions of the songs in the movements and expressions of the dancers. A notable example was the contemporary dance to “Waiting Game” by Banks, choreographed by Sarah Anzalone.
The lighting for each of the dances was very fitting, especially the ones accompanied by vibrant reds, such as Emily Nasal’s jazz dance to “Canned Heat.” The outfits were equally as stunning, a notable example being the outfits for the African Fusion dance, choreographed by Kheiyasa Carter.
In two of the dances, one of the dancers wore a symbolic blindfold for the majority of the dance, such as Krista Vann’s tap dance with Alena Fresch to “Mansion” by DF, a dance that, according to her dedication in the program, represents Vann’s struggles with anxiety.
The energy throughout the show was not as high as it usually is for Del Sarte’s recitals, however that was more than made up for by a few high-energy dances that got the crowd particularly excited, especially the Swing Dance Club’s performance to Amy Whinehouse’s “Valerie” which was an audience favorite and the dance to “Thunderstruck” by AC/DC, choreographed by Devyn Phelps, dedicated to all the ‘80s lovers in the audience.
Also responsible for bringing the audience’s excitement level up intermittently were the series of continuous spins in place, which are somewhat difficult for dancers to maintain, that elicited cheers from the audience every time. One dance that contained many of these was the contemporary dance to “Over the Love,” choreographed by Emily Gunn.
Another memorable performance was the advanced contemporary dance to “Issues” by Julia Michaels, choreographed by Kate Salmonsen, the focus of which seemed to be the one male in the group whose red shirt contrasted greatly with the outfits of the other three dancers, perhaps highlighting him to remind the audience that males belong in dance just as much as females do.
Just before certain dances during the Saturday Show, encouraging cheers from certain dancers’ families and friends rang out from the audience.
For the Saturday show, Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up” played during the finale, effectively Rickrolling the entire audience as an April Fools prank that none of the dancers knew about.
At the end of the show, the graduating seniors of the club were given a parting recognition, along with gift bags.
The officers for next semester were announced: Savannah St. Clair will step up from vice president to president, secretary Eden Vail will take her place as the new vice president, Kristen Stone will be the new secretary, Kate Cook will be the new treasurer and Becca Smith will be returning as the public relations officer.
