The Sedona Dance Academy held its annual spring showcase at the Barbara Antonsen Memorial Pavilion at Posse Grounds Park on Sunday, May 18.
Several routines for the younger dancers reflected the thematic material of the music, with the junior ballet students spinning strips of the rainbow as they rendered “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” and the tap students glittering in the water melon patch while they danced to “Singin’ in the Rain.” “New Soul,” performed by the junior modern class, was an amusing frolic at a beach cottage in the summer, with the kids playing dressup with their parents’ clothes and other items.
The hip-hop class threw a party with a Caribbean feel, and “Cielito Lindo” gave the students a chance to jump for school founder Jessica Phillips, literally leaping over her during the number, as well as practice in the beginning elements of the chorus line, while “The Fairies and the Gnome” featured a group of butterflies circling a mush room who didn’t quite seem to know how he ended up in such company.
Two of the sassy older girls led a sparkly, peppy rendition of Fifth Harmony’s “Worth It.” In the same vein, the school’s competitive team closed the show with an energetic, juicy romp that was both crisp and bouncy and even threw in a couple of lifts.
The older dancers delivered particularly good performances. Adivah Cohen’s highly capable solo “Down” was slick, sultry and interactive as she embodied the feel of the music and flirted with the audience. The jazz students provided a lovely splash of the Roaring 20s with their high kicks and exuberance, while the senior modern class performed an intriguingly choreographed work by Danielle McNeal-Strabala that seemed to incorporate elements of clog dancing without any clogging and showed off the group’s strong integration.
The advanced ballet students had a chance to present the third movement from Arcangelo Corelli’s Suite for String Orchestra, choreographed by Eric Lindemer, which was both elegant and folksy, a refined Baroque rural caper, all brides and no brothers, as well as a selection from the Marius Petipa Ludwig Minkus “Paquita.” Also in the classical line, Sofia Wolf danced a solo selection from Petipa’s “Paquita” with dignified precision and maturity. Phillips announced at the end of the show that Wolf will shortly be leaving SDA to attend The Ballet Clinic in Phoenix on scholar ship to continue preparing for a professional career in dance.
The best bit in the show, though, was Siena Moreau and Isabelle Payne’s self-choreographed duet that could only impress with both its design and execution. Intense, modern, fast, and dramatic, it played out with great effectiveness before the backdrop of the Sedona skyline, a reminder of the potential fusion of music, movement and scenery possible in such a location. Watching them dance looked like a music video come to life.
