This year the annual Afternoon of Student Choreography (ASC) will be held on January 25 in the theater and will be an amazing opportunity for the dancers and choreographers at Poly to showcase their talents with the community. This afternoon is an ongoing tradition in the arts community and is a special performance completely run by students. ASC gives many students the exciting opportunity to experience performing or organizing a dance to be presented in front of a large group.
Workshopping for these pieces can start as early as September, and these dances are a long process to make. If you are in a dance class at Poly there will be one person in charge of choreographing the dance, but there’s also the opportunity to create your own solos or duets. These students have full creative freedom and the only structure is a few deadlines before the show. Because of this more fluid approach, the show becomes extremely diverse in terms of styles, songs, costumes, and so on.
The entire process, from the beginning to end, is a very collaborative one. Students will work together outside of class to create their dances and choose music. On performance day everyone comes together and there is a strong sense of community. When asked about her favorite part of ASC, Eden Golomb ’26 said “My favorite part of last year’s ASC was how everyone worked together to help each other backstage. There were a lot of quick changes and it can be a very stressful experience but I feel like people really came together.”
When creating a dance there are many different aspects to be thinking about. Sadie Schoenberger ’25 is a co-artistic director of ASC along with Isabelle Gerling ’25 and has had many experiences creating dances for her classes. When choreographing a dance, she begins with the music as it is very influential over what sort of mood and dance style the piece will have, or what story it will convey. Schoenberger says that she then begins by asking herself questions like, “what shapes and formations can you make? How can you utilize the entire space?” During this process it is important to consider her group’s strengths and how she can best highlight that in the piece. Schoenberger explains that these experiences have taught her so much about collaboration, stating that, “it’s not about how you dance, it’s about the group, and working with the people in the group and their strengths.”
This year there will be works featured by Performing Arts Faculty Mariko Watt’s Advanced Musical Theater class for Cell Block Tango from Chicago, choreographed by Gerling, along with the traditional dance class pieces. Some of the choreographers will be Gerling, Schonenberger, Madison Shepherd ’25, Annakaecia Clarke ’25, and Akeelah Quartet. Dance team performs every year and is choreographed by the dance team captains, Olivia Sperling ’26 and Angel Lopez ’26.There will be a performance by the step team as well as middle school dance classes and last but not least, the solos and duets entered on their own. This is a very special opportunity at Poly to come and support the hard work from all the dancers. According to Eve Harris ’26, the ASC dance captain, “it will be a culmination of hard work and dedication.”
