The Nexus

They knew that taking classes with professional dancers would be hard and that it would test them and push them to the limit, but that’s exactly why they came.

Members of the Westview Dance Troupe flew to New York over spring break for a four-day trip just for that reason, so they could have that experience that would open their eyes to push themselves for more.

“The New York trip [was] an opportunity to expose the advanced dancers to the New York dance industry,” Dance Troupe director Shannon Parker said. “The exposure to a higher standard of dance is part of motivating and inspiring my dancers.”

For these reasons the Dance Troupe plans a trip to New York, San Francisco or Chicago every year.

By traveling to these cities, the troupe members don’t look at other Dance Teams and local competition as their models and are able to understand all the opportunities available to them. They rotate between these three cities because they are each defined by a different type of dance.

“The New York dance industry has such a classic culture about it,” Parker said. “It is full of Broadway dance and contemporary movement, whereas Chicago is more defined by jazz and ballet and San Francisco by modern. The three different cities complement each other.”

That’s why in New York the Dance Troupe members made sure to attend a modern lyrical dance class and a Broadway dance class as a team.

The Broadway dance class, which they took at the Broadway Dance Center, was taught by one of the backup dancers in West Side Story, a play the Troupe made sure to see on their visit to New York.

In this class, they learned a dance very similar to those in the play.

Then, each member on the team got to choose either tap, ballet, lyrical or a contemporary class to take on their own.

Although the number of people who attended each of these classes varied, everyone in the Dance Troupe gained valuable experience.

The troupe members learned more of what it is like to be a professional dancer because all these classes were with professional dancers and taught by master dance instructors.

“[Taking the professional dance classes] was so hard because we started right away with this really intense warm-up,” Jamie Sanders (10), an advanced Dance Troupe member, said. “We all were just trying to keep up with everyone else.”

Although the dance classes were hard and many of the other people who took those classes had attended the class for weeks, the dance troupe was still able to pick up the dances and perform.

One of the professionals in the lyrical class was Nick Lazzarini, the winner of season one on the popular TV show, So You Think You Can Dance.

The Dance Troupes did many other things besides dance. They saw two plays and visited the Juilliard Dance division, Radio City Music Hall and NYU. By doing these activities, they got the opportunity to see more of what a dancers career is like later on.

They also took time to sightsee by walking almost everywhere they went with their tour guide. They also went to the top of the Empire State Building and took a cruise in the harbor.

Everything that the dance troupe did on this trip was meant to enhance their exposure to the culture of the city, even the restaurants they ate at for dinner. This exposure to the city had the desired effect.

“Going on this trip opened our eyes,” Sanders said. “It was so different than it is here because everyone’s really in to it. It’s like something you’d see in movies like Step Up.”