Amanda Wright, Editor In-Chief
For the past three months, Saunders' dancers have been working extremely hard for the December dance show. Four performances will take place between December 15th and 16th.
Dance teacher and sole creator of the show Mrs. Stewart says, “It’ll be kinda like a review where there are a number of different pieces. This year's program has 20 different pieces so the audience can expect to see some really fun full class pieces with like 25 bodies on stage together to solo work and everything in between. There's some trios and duos and they will see grade nines through twelves on stage.”
Typically, each dance show has a theme. This year is Flashback, a retrospective show to celebrate Saunders 50th Anniversary. The show will spotlight the work Mrs. Stewart has done since she started working at Saunders in 2006. Everything onstage will be pieces and songs that have already been in dance shows in the past.
Mrs. Stewart shares how many months of thought and effort she puts into planning each year's dance show, “I start thinking about shows sometimes even a year before. It depends on when I know students that I will have, sometimes I have had conversations. But when we get into the nitty-gritty of it, I will start thinking of it over summer…and then I will start creating and researching and things like that probably in about September and then its hours and hours every night creating and making sure that the right steps are going to the right people to the right music.”
The whole Sabres community comes together to form each show. From janitors, to lighting, to technology and foods classes, it takes a lot more than just the dancers on stage to create the performance you’ll see next week.
“It’s going to be a blast, so much fun!”, says Shannon Dean, grade 11 star dancer of the upcoming show. Not only can parents and guardians come to support the dancers but friends, teachers, and all students can come as well for a small fee of a $5 ticket. The dancers are well prepared and ready to showcase their hard work.
“It's been since 2019 since any of these dancers have had a live audience,” Says Dean. “I think it's going to be a great show. There's a huge amount of variety. We’ve kept it really super cost effective, it's a quick thing as well, there's no intermission so you're out, and we hope that we leave you wanting a little more as well.”