Dance Company

Xitlali Martinez, Staff Writer

A high school dance company is a performing class designed to further a student’s dance technique and allows them the chance to experience choreographing, costume designing, and being able to perform their own work. It allows students to form a connection as a team and helps them learn how to work well with others. Their coaches and teachers also enforce strict CPA and GPA requirements in order for dancers to do well in all their classes. The biggest downside about Dance Company however is that it is very expensive and can prove to be something that makes it not very inclusive. Affordability is something that goes hand in hand with inclusivity and it can prove to be something that can stand between students and their ability to participate in extracurricular activities such as Dance Company. Extracurricular activities such as Dance Company need to find better ways to become more inclusive and affordable for everyone. After conducting a short interview with a former dance student (who’s name is abbreviated for privacy) more insight is given on how things work:

Interviewer: “Do you believe that dance co. is fair when it comes to determining the members of the team and isn’t biased based on race or gender?”

L.J. : “New judges are hired every year and are focused on looking for skill regardless of race, gender, or previous history on the team. Throughout my experience I danced with people of different races and genders and I believe we all had an incredible experience.”

Interviewer: “Do you believe that your time on dance co. was overall a great learning experience?”

L.J. : “Dance co. was definitely one of the best experiences I’ve ever had. It taught me how to be responsible with coming prepared to rehearsals and practices, helped improved communication with my coach and I, and helped me make sure I had good grades despite the hard work it takes to be on dance co.”

Interviewer: “How do you feel cost affects inclusivity and how does dance co. work around it?”

L.J. : “Cost is something that’s really hard to control, Dance co. does it’s best to help out and provide different ways for you to help you pay off the bills. They also cover a large portion of the cost, it’s much more expensive then it claims to be on the paper, but there’s several different ways of fundraising.”