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“I wanted to do something special for my 10th year,” said dance teacher Diane Guida, who invited alumni Olivia Berger and Lauren Gualdino to return and each choreograph a dance for the concert. Gualdino, class of 2006, has since gone on to teach dance in Westchester County and choreographed the Level II piece “Time Machine” for the week’s concert.
“It’s kind of a funk-jazz piece,” she said. “It’s been a really great experience coming back since this program was such a big part of my life.”
Other highlights of this year’s concert included a classical Indian dance choreographed by sophomore Komal Keerthy, as well as a piece that combined dance and song by Emma Calame-Pennington and Nina Simone. Senior Jessi Mason also sang during a dance number performed by Level III students.
Berger, who was among Guida’s first dancers during her 2006 freshman year, studied dance at Bard College and challenged this year’s graduating students to get in touch with their emotions in their senior dance, “The Edge of Now.”
“It has been such a pleasure to work with the seniors and see them put so much emotion into their movements and have that come through,” Berger said.
The seniors stepped up to the challenge of embracing a piece that expressed their feelings of leaving high school and taking the next steps in their lives. Several of them have been involved in the Briarcliff High School dance program for many years and encourage others to consider it as an alternative to physical education.
“It’s so rewarding,” said senior Samantha Martocci. “I am so proud of the senior dance. It’s a really happy moment.”
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