Dancing is commonly viewed as a form of art. Beautiful, moving, and captivating, dancers show the glamour and simplicity, as they make it look so effortless. Someone who has never danced may assume that putting on some music and moving your body is all that it takes to be a dancer. What many fail to grasp is the extreme physical demands this sport can put on your body.
Dancers are athletes, using the stage as their gym. Junior Jamie Bernstein explains, “You need as much training in dance as is sports, and you need the same strength and agility.” Comparing the two, Bernstein said, “The same way you need to memorize plays, you need to memorize choreography.”
So You Think Stern Can Dance gives women the opportunity to get that rush of being on stage without the halakhic boundaries standing in the way. All of these beautiful and talented woman work long and hard hours practicing and training for this performance making sure that the evening is one that will not be forgotten. There may not be a winning or losing team at the end, but the audience gets the opportunity to watch their friends, family, and fellow students perform a variety of dance styles.
Most people don’t realize what it takes to perform a movement as simple as a pique or pirouette. The amount of training you must put your body through before beginning a simple routine can be grueling. Senior Ari Geller describes dancing as “interpretative as well as an exercise.” The stretches and constant routines can be brutal.
From lyrical to hip-hop routines, dancing requires strength, focus, passion, technique, and the willpower to push your body to reach your goals. A dancer’s technique is one of the most beautiful, painful and difficult sports that can be mastered. When a dancer finally masters that scorpion or can finally hit that perfect fouette, the feeling is incredible.
After incessant hours of practicing, and tears from critiques, nothing can come close to explain the feeling standing on stage, ready to perform the routine that you’ve dreamt in your head about for nights. Junior Dalya Silverstein says, “Dance for me is an escape. It takes my mind and body to a different world. All stress melts away and it’s something I truly enjoy. I couldn’t imagine my life without it.”
Dance is a way to tell a story, express your emotions, blow off some steam and simply have fun. Whether you have a stadium full of people watching you in a game, or seeing the audience enjoying your performance, the determination to get to that point is challenging, and the feeling of accomplishment is bliss. Every step expresses how the dancer feels and the moment a performer can deliver those emotions onto the audience is when you know you are watching a great dancer.