There is no doubt that Spirit Week is greater than the sum of its parts. Howeverc,in the excitement that ensues throughout the last week of Jan., we often forget the people who have helped to make it great. Pep Rally, the grand finale to Spirit Week, consists of several small productions, among them; plays and dances.  Each part has had a person behind it making sure every detail of the performance is perfect.  

Dance sophomore Rachel Abelenda,was one of the few dance majors who choreographed the sophomore dance, as well as having participated in the Generation Day dance.

Q: What age did you begin to dance?

A: I began dancing when I was 4 years old, but I started taking it more seriously right around the time I tried out for Bak Middle School of the Arts.

Q: What is your style of dancing?

A: I would say I’m really well-rounded. I do all types of dance, but my favorites are contemporary and hip-hop, so my [Pep Rally] dance is a combination of both.

Q: What type of dance did you incorporate into your portion of the Pep Rally?

A:  I did hip-hop, and made sure it’s really groovy, and house, and very dance-hall, which is all different styles.

Q: How did you find out about the dance and how did you get involved with choreographing it?

A: I found out through my friend whose sister is also a dance major.  They told me how the dances are super cool and it’s a very huge part of Spirit Week. There’s very few of us that know how to choreograph and do hip-hop in the dance department, so I was like, ‘if anyone needs help I’ll do it,’ and they were like, ‘we need you.’

Q: Being that each part of the dance is choreographed by someone else, was it hard to work the pieces together, or did they all slide seamlessly?

A: It’s kind of a mixture of both.  Since they are all sorts of different styles, it’s hard to incorporate them all into each other.  At first, it was a little rough but with all the transitions and with the music helping us out, it went by really smoothly.

Q: What did you take inspiration from in your dance?

A: We took inspiration from our theme, ‘survivor.’  With that, there’s a bunch of videos on Youtube by Millenium in LA that have lots of different music that’s very popular but isn’t at the same time, and that worked really well with our theme.

Q:  What part of the dance do you enjoy the most?
A: I like doing the dance more because making up the dance is kind of hard because not everyone dances like you and not everyone is like a hard copy of yourself. I like learning everyone else’s style and like adapting to it.

Q: Is it hard to incorporate the dance majors with the non-dance majors?

A: Yes, it’s really hard because when you try explaining something to them your like, ‘you know it’s like a groove’ and dance majors understand but non-dance majors don’t understand.

Another part of the Pep Rally that many people look forward to are the skits, where the teachers will dress-up to the students’ theme. Theatre senior Ethan Izenwasser has been involved in Teacher Dress-Up since his sophomore year.

Theatre senior Ethan Izenwasser also contributed a lot to pep rally through his work on the senior’s Teacher Dress-Up skit.

Q: When did you first become interested in theatre?

The summer before second grade, my mom was looking for a summer camp for me to go to, and she found this new place that opened up near my house called ‘Standing Ovation Performing Arts.’ She signed me up for two weeks of camp: the circus week and the improv theatre week. I loved it so much that I elected to take classes that following year, and I’ve been doing it ever since.

Q: What is  your theatre concentration?

I am on the Technical Theatre Track with a focus on lighting design. Basically, I study light and how it affects the mood and tone of a scene, and also how to set up the lighting to achieve my goals.

Q: How did you get involved with making the skit?

In sophomore year, I was asked to be part of the Teacher Dress-Up,featuring Mr. Ruth. I had a lot of fun, and wanted to do it next year. So around Nov. of my junior year, I messaged my class President, who also happens to be named Ethan, and asked who was running it, and he said no one. He offered me the position so I took it up and ran it last year, which definitely should have won. I was asked to do it again for this year.

Q: What is your role in leading the skit?

Basically, I did everything. I picked the music, edited it, came up with the story, and choreographed the fight scenes. Of course, I had a lot of help from everyone who was in it to fine tune it. I couldn’t have done it without them,and the amazing teachers of course.

Q: Where did you draw inspiration from while creating it?

I based it loosely off the final battle at the end of The Deathly Hallows. I always loved when the skit dealt with ‘beating’ the other classes, and I thought that was the perfect way, with the Hogwarts students being the seniors, and the Death Eaters being the other classes.

Q: What is your favorite part of the skit?

My favorite part of the skit is the final fight between Harry and Voldemort, when we use streamers to act as the spells being cast, like in the movie.