"Dance is the only art in which we ourselves are the stuff of which it is made."
- Ted ShawnNESA's Dance program focuses on creating a versatile dancer prepared to audition for college scholarships and professional work. Ballet technique, terminology, and history are studied together with contemporary jazz, tap, modern, and improvisational dance techniques. Students work with local, national, and international choreographers, study audition techniques, and perform in numerous NESA productions. Highlighting the dancer's year are two dance concerts featuring numerous styles and pieces set by guest choreographers and the NESA Dance faculty. Alumni of NESA's Dance program have received college dance scholarships, as well as jobs performing on cruise ships, theme parks, and professional theatres including Broadway.
DANCE CURRICULUM
Grades 9-12
Advanced Ballet I - IV
These courses focus on ballet technique terminology and a study of innovators of ballet. Beginning techniques of Cecchetti, Royal Academie of Dance, and Russian styles of ballet will be studied together as well as the American style of ballet. Mini units of modern and other techniques will be taught. The courses also focus on the artistry and refining of ballet as well as a comparison and contrast between the different styles of ballet and modern dance for the Dance major. Daily technique class with an emphasis on artistry from the onset is vital for students auditioning for college or a company.
Dance Repertory I - IV
These courses focus on daily technique classes in jazz progressions, combinations, leaps, and turns. The dancers work to perform movements with a refined sense of rhythm and style, with clarity and expressiveness. Dancers learn a variety of styles of tap technique, striving for rhymthical accuracy and command of the vocabulary. The Dance majors will learn choreography in a multitude of styles ranging from Broadway to hip-hop. A history unit on innovators in tap, jazz, and musical theatre choreography will be completed to strengthen the dancers' understanding of style.
