By: Jasmine (High School Intern)
“Dancing at Ridge defines the school. We have a lot of different styles, everything from lyrical to dancing,” Bobby Sisouvong, a senior at River Ridge said.
Dancing at River Ridge is a hobby that over half of the school takes part in. There are many variations of dancing at Ridge. Some of them
include: theatrical, lyrical, hip hop and break dancing.
Every day during lunch you will find dance team members and “b-boys”
huddled up in the choir room practicing their routines, learning new moves, and even doing the Cat Daddy – a routine that originated in Southern California a little over a year ago, and has already become the epitome of musical dance today.
“This school actually has talent,” said Stetson Tagavilla, a sophomore.
“There are various types of dancing here.”
For many of the students at River Ridge dancing is a way of expressing themselves. Dancers at Ridge feel that their talents and dancing skills are overlooked by the school’s mixed image in the surrounding community.
Yet, many students continue to dance for the love of it and in an effort to earn the positive recognition that they feel they deserve from the people around them.
“It’s exciting and it brings us all together like a family,” said sophomore Mikee Valdez.
Mikee is on River Ridge’s dance team which will be entering competitions beginning early 2012. Not to mention, the dance team will be competing in both the hip-hop category and most likely the jazz category as well. The jazz piece will be performed to a song by Adele.
There will be two hip hop pieces; one will be to Ciara and another to a remix with Britney Spears, Niki Manaj and Kesha.
Unsurprisingly, such a unique blend of jazz and hip-hop dancing ability attracts a diverse array of popularity towards the Hawks dancing team.
“The dancers at River Ridge are talented and super entertaining,” said Allison Twaddell, a senior.
While dancing is thought to be a sport dominated by men, just like football or wrestling. Hip-Hop is thought to be primarily for men, and the media continues to place male dancers continuously in the spotlight through shows such as “America’s Best Dance Crew.” However, at River Ridge, women have been showing a lot more interest in dance. In fact, every single one of the dance team pieces have been choreographed by females; yet another sign of the incredible mix of both cultural dances that are expressed by the Hawks dance team, as well as the demographic anomaly that comprises the squad.
Thanks to a plethora of talent on the team – five students are on a regional dance crew called Audacity, which has been grabbing a lot of recognition for their talent in the Seattle area – River Ridge is increasingly becoming a locale for representing the intense diversity of the city of Lacey.
In 2011, a hip-hop club was formed in order to meet the demand of the waves of people who were eager to get up off their feet and hit the dance floor. The only requirement for the club is that you have to dance. This new dance group integrated with the breakdancing club which was established in 2010.
Many parents as well as teachers agree that dancing has helped the students at River Ridge be able to express themselves in safe and effective ways. The dancers continue to work hard and have tremendous plans to take their dancing careers to the next level.
