As I confirmed my attendance at graduation and ordered my cap and gown from the bookstore; I’ve begun to reminisce about my years at IUP and all the wonderful memories I have here. I didn’t start out at IUP, but I don’t think I would change being here for the world. I’ve met so many people and made so many friends that I otherwise would have never met and for that, I’m forever grateful.
My most precious memory was actually right before things started going downhill in 2020. This was going to be my second production with the IUP Dance Theater and I was so excited. The show was going to be Hocus Pocus, one of my all-time favorite Disney Halloween movies. This show was the highlight of my semester and I was so excited about it I didn’t even complain that one of the show nights was on my 21st birthday.
To dig deeper into it, I remember practicing for one scene in particular that I loved. This was the zombie scene, as Hocus Pocus had Billy the Zombie who reluctantly helped the witches try and get the book back from Max, Alison, and Dani. Our rendition included Beatrice Butcherson and her 3 zombie friends. This piece really brought me out of my comfort zone as a dancer and I absolutely loved it.
As we practiced, our instructor asked us to pick a favorite body part. All of us were a little confused as to what she meant by that, I chose my right elbow reluctantly, and much to our surprise she told us that as zombies, these body parts would be decayed and unusable. So not only was I learning this dance, I had to learn this dance without the use of half of my right arm. It was challenging in a fun way and we each got to create our zombie-sona. As much as I miss the whole show itself, zombies were for sure the one role I miss the most.
Unfortunately, Hocus Pocus was canceled after the world went into COVID lockdown and we never got to redeem all our hard work preparing Hocus Pocus for the stage. After a long time of grieving it, I came to accept that it was gone and that no matter what, those memories were still with me. What happened, happened and now we must move on. Even if some nights I sit up and wonder what things would’ve been like if COVID hadn’t happened, or even happened a month later.
