Saturday, April 28, marked the seventh annual Kutztown University Performing Dance Portmanteau’s Spring Showcase. The Performing Dance Portmanteau, also known as PDP, is a student-run club on campus open to all students with no prior dance experience necessary. They include styles of dance including jazz, ballet, pointe, tap, hip hop, and even Irish dance.
I was fortunate enough to be chosen to choreograph a jazz number to “The Greatest Show” from The Greatest Showman. Since January, I had worked on choreographing and teaching this dance to my class of twenty-six students, as other choreographers had done with their students as well. Before we knew it, it was already the week of the showcase.
Showcase week consists of many things: the last week of regular classes, dress rehearsal the day before, an all-day rehearsal the day of showcase, and then the showcase itself. The weekend of showcase is always frantic, but I didn’t realize the heightened anxieties surrounding the showcase when you become a choreographer.
First, you have to decide on spacing of all of your dancers onto the stage, which seems like an easy task in theory. However, when you have twenty-six dancers and multiple formations throughout the dance, it’s much more difficult than you think. Then there’s the decision with lighting, and the bigger issue of the timing of the lighting.
The last run-through of the show before performing for an audience is the only time we do our dances with lighting. Everyone’s dances went smoothly, except for mine. We had to run my dance twice due to the times of my lighting being wrong. But the problems didn’t end there.
Former PDP members in the audience helping us were quick to say they liked the one lighting choice over the other. All of a sudden, I had multiple voices shouting at me asking what I wanted to do. Some of my own dancers came up to me and say, “Do whatever you want. This is your dance, not theirs.” Not even knowing what the lighting looked like, I asked if we could run just the beginning one more time so I could see the lighting. They agreed.
A bundle of nerves, I leaped from the stage and ran to the middle of the auditorium to watch my dance. As the lights dimmed at just the perfect moment, I got butterflies in my stomach. We were ready.
Time seems to pass quickly on the day of the showcase. We danced, ate lunch, did our makeup, and then WHAM: It was show time.
Before every showcase, I whisper to myself, asking the universe to let the showcase go smoothly, to let us dancers remember our dances, and to not fall or injure ourselves. Then I went through all of the dances I was in, each one going just as smoothly as I had wished.
Then there was mine.
With all of the problems present during my dance during rehearsals, I was extremely nervous. Being the second to last number in the entire show, I felt a great responsibility to have my dance be great. Before the lights and music came on, I said one more prayer to myself. “Please let this go smoothly. Please, please, please, let all of us do the best performance we ever could.”
The music started, and I watched my first group of dancers from the wings, eyes agape. Holding their legs above their heads, none of my dancers wavered. I jumped with silent excitement from my spot backstage. Then the next group of dancers entered with their hula hoops. None of them fell.
Then there were the lights. They dimmed at just the right moment, creating silhouettes of our bodies and showcasing our ringmaster of the dance.
I told my class to look sassy during this dance, but I couldn’t stop smiling.
As we hit our final pose at the end of the song, my eyes immediately began filling with tears. I was suddenly overcome with so much pride for my dancers. I was beyond proud of my dancers for putting so much effort into the dance and executing it perfectly once we got out on stage.
I was also proud of myself. I had worked on the choreography for that dance since December, and to see all of your hard work pay off is such an incredulous feeling. The way in which my dancers helped make my vision come to life was beyond humbling. It was the most amazing feeling in the world.
I thank PDP for giving me the opportunity to choreograph and showcase my work, and I thank all of the members who joined my class for making my dance look as amazing as it did. I couldn’t have done it without their help.