When you hear Dance Ensemble a lot of students automatically think of the students that perform at football games, but in reality, they are two separate things that consist of a lot of the same dancers.
Dance Ensemble is a class at Leesville that requires students to enroll with an audition clip before being accepted into the class. Once enrolled, students can choose to take the course either as a semester or year-long class. Dance concerts are held twice a year, one per semester, both of which are open to the public.
The majority of the classes’ curriculum builds up to the concerts, preparing by learning routines, and picking music, and choosing hair, costume, and makeup. The dance concerts allow seniors the special opportunity to choreograph routines for both themselves as solos and small group routines within Dance Ensemble.
The Dance Team is an extracurricular at Leesville, in which dancers are required to attend a day of tryouts. Once dancers make the team, they immediately jump into learning the base choreography and routines for football game performances. Members of the Dance Team gain numerous opportunities to perform at pep rallies, football and basketball games, competitions, and even Disney World.
Lacie Holman, sophomore, said, “Dance Team has allowed me to meet a lot of new people. Most recently we took a field trip to Disney World and were able to perform at Disney, as honorary Disney cast members, which was really fun.”
Mrs. Carr leads the Dance Team and Dance Ensemble and seniors assist her, who have a lot of choreographic freedom to create many different types of routines.
Jaidee Hernandez, junior, said, “Mrs.Carr leads the Dance Team and Ensemble really well. She plans all of our schedules and choreographs or mentors most of our routines.”
As of now, the Dance Team has a break from performing, but many of them are also in Dance Ensemble. Preparation for the Spring Concert is in full swing — the concert is May 22 and 23. It is open to everyone, and highly encouraged for Leesville students to attend.
