Students participate in a wide variety of dance classes listed below, and all are incorporated into performances. The majority of classes are offered in the afternoon hours during the sports period from 3 PM to 6 PM. Students may take dance to fulfill the sports requirement or it may supplement participation in another sport. Hip Hop is offered during the academic day as an elective. Dance performances are a regular feature of the dance program.
Interested students may also earn academic credit in Grier Performing Arts Dance Intensive, which is offered during the academic day. This class is an introduction to various dance styles and studies the works of well-known choreographers. It includes short dance studies leading up to final projects three times a year. The projects involve group work that is done during the class, and homework involves the planning and production of an independent choreography project. All dance projects are presented before an audience at the end of the semester.
The following classes are offered each sport season at Grier:
Several classes during the academic day as elective
Stretch/Strength class
Supporting dance
Grier Dance Performances
Grier Gala Student Showcase - March 30, 2012, 7:30 pm
Grier Gala Professional Performance - March 31, 2012, 7:30 pm
Spring Dance Performance - April 6, 2012, 1 pm
Graduation Performance - May 25, 2012, 9pm
Katie Gow won a scholarship at the Gala 2011 for the program called The World Dance Movement in Castelina Grotte, Italy. It brings together many extremely talented choreographers from around the world, some featured on the TV show So You Think You Can Dance. It's main focus is to expose young dancers to different styles of movement and fellow dancers from across the globe.
Parents Weekend 2011
Grier's Performing Arts Center, which opened in July of 2006, has a large foyer area which itself is spacious enough for small gatherings. A high ceiling in the entry makes it bright and inviting. From there, you are able to walk along a corridor that follows the southern exposure of the building beside floor to ceiling windows nearly twenty feet high. From this corridor you enter into the main room from a central door. During normal school days, this central area is divided with a partition that effectively creates two very large dance studios of identical size with adjoining changing rooms and bathrooms. Both have theatre style seating. The value of this new space is most evident on performance days when the partition separating the studios can be retracted, opening up the space into one large area with seating for 280 audience members. The total area of the performance floor space is 9,600 square feet. The lighting and sound systems for the center are of exceptionally high quality.
Click screen below to view video - you can enlarge to full screen at the bottom
DANCE, THE PROGRAM
