On May 5, Linganore dancers performed in the spring recital, which they have been working towards for the past five months.

Every student in the dance class has the opportunity to showcase the hard work they have put into their performances.

Despite it being a class offered at Linganore, the entire recital was student-choreographed. The choreographers from all grades took initiative and collaboratively created a united performance.

Before any choreographing could take place, the students had to pick the music for their dances, which took careful consideration. The music selected was based on a theme.

“The theme was ‘message sent’ so we basically had to choreograph a dance that would send a message to the audience,” Linganore sophomore Katie Haybok said. “I chose to choreograph to ‘My Tears Ricochet’ by Taylor Swift because I could send a message about betrayal.”

Students not only had to pick a song that could inspire choreography but also needed to consider the message or takeaway for the audience. Linganore junior Lily Godette chose “Born This Way” by Lady Gaga to inspire the audience to always be themselves.

Once the song was picked, choreographing immediately began. This included an audition process to decide who would be in each dance. Choreographers taught the dancers a part of their choreography and decided which dancers best executed their vision.

The process of creating whole dances involved a great amount of patience and collaboration and inspiration drawn from other dancers and choreographers.

Linganore freshman Melissa Bowman was thrilled to share the source for her own inspiration.

“Mainly, it was choreographers from my studio and my long-time love for dance [that inspire me], so I feel like moves kind of come easy, especially with the beat of the song,” Bowman said. 

Bowman dances with 24/7 Dance and has been a member for the past year. The studio has their recital on June 2 with tickets for sale here.

Even when dancers have a love for dance and come with experience, creating the choreography can be a hard thing to do alone.

“It’s [choreographing is] always difficult at first, but once you ask the other choreographers for their opinions or help with it, you can bounce off of each other’s ideas, and it becomes so much easier,” Godette said.

The effort put for by all the dancers and student-coreographers made for an incredible performance, bringing  a talented group of individuals together for a total of over 10 dances.

All the talent and hard work was evident, and the friendships that developed throughout the process shined through in the performance.

“In the end, the recital is the best part because we get to showcase all of our hard work, and it’s just so amazing to dance on stage with all your friends,” Godette said.