By Jasmine Born, Staff Writer
As an exceedingly successful year for the River Hill Dance Department begins to approach its end, dance teacher Ms. Byrd has her eyes set on making next year’s dance program even more outstanding–as well as accessible.
Ms. Byrd states that her primary goal of the placement audition is “for each student to get the most out of their dancing experience and to help them reach their full potential in the long run!” Placement of students is very important, she describes, because “In company we focus on performances, growing your choreography skills, and preparing you for a possible future in dance. Not as much time is spent developing skills,” whereas in dance classes “we focus on skill development in a variety of dance styles. We spend a good time learning about the history of dance as we focus on creating a well rounded dancer.”
“A central focus in both types of placements is creating a loving, supporting, creative community,” Ms. Byrd notes, and her “hope is that each dancer has a blast creating life long memories and friendships while progressing as a dancer.”
Ms. Byrd advertised the dance program by visiting middle schools, making a website with audition information, posting on the River Hill Dance Instagram, and putting QR codes up around school in order to spread the word. The audition dates were scheduled for February 9th and 10th, and over 50 students, middle and high schoolers included, attended.
The planning process for recruiting middle schoolers started very early on, according to Ms. Byrd. She shares, “I had the opportunity to take some of our Senior Company members to Folly Quarter and Clarksville Middle to advertise and build interest in our program.”
Beforehand, Ms. Byrd made “several across the floor combinations focusing on technique as well as a jazz routine and a lyrical routine for dancers to perform for the judges.” She says she loved this part of the process.
The process began with an extensive workshop day where the dancers warmed up, stretched, practiced across the floor combinations, and learned the jazz and lyrical routines. The workshop lasted for over three hours, ending around 6:30 pm. Senior and Senior Company member, Ava Gesell, helped out by attending the workshop and having herself filmed so that the auditioners could reference the choreography, which Ms. Byrd was super thankful for.
The following day encapsulated everything that would be needed to officially place the students into their respective levels in order for them to receive the training and guidance they needed. Everyone was given their audition numbers and were split into groups of four to complete their across the floor progressions and two choreographed combinations. Some dancers were needed for “callbacks” so that the judges could continue assessing their placement.
Ms. Byrd had her friends that she grew up with back in Texas to judge the placement auditions in order to get outside perspectives. One is currently running a successful dance program in Texas, and the other is an actress and screenplay writer in New York. Ms. Byrd was interested to see how they scored the dancers, given that she was “more likely to take into account how they show up and present themselves in dance class each day” while the judges “had nothing to consider other than what is presented in the 15 minutes the dancers are in front of them.” Overall, Ms. Byrd thought it was a great addition to the judgment process.
Senior Becca Tow, who was put in charge of calling the groups to the dance room noted that “dancers were definitely scared,” and “dancing in front of judges and dancing without the mirror were reasons people said they were scared, but a lot of people realized they had nothing to worry about and many people left smiling, feeling good about how they performed.”
Current freshman and Dance 4 level student, Abi Paterniti, stepped into the audition ready to put her best work in. Her preparation included practicing the routines multiple times, stretching before and after the audition days, asking her peers to give friendly feedback, properly nourishing her body, and most importantly, having a positive mindset and supporting her fellow dancers. At times, Abi started to feel overwhelmed, but she states, “ because of the positive dance community at River Hill I was quickly reassured,” leaving her “confident, prepared, capable, and thankful.”
Although Abi’s goal was to be placed into a higher level dance class, she declares, “Most importantly I wanted to show my dedication and love for dance.” She also exclaims that she is “most definitely excited and enthusiastic about sophomore year at RHHS. With the amazing support of the dance community, especially our incredible leader Ms. Byrd, I feel ready for the year to come.”
Even future hawks were part of this process. The placement auditions were crucial for Ms. Byrd to get a good understanding of the incoming talent of the freshman class for next year so that she could place students accordingly.
Clarksville Middle School eighth grader and current breakdancer Jonah Nguyen learned about the program through his older brother and a friend. He comments, “I wanted to learn about other styles of dance and use it to improve myself overall as a dancer.” He admits that he had some inexperience when it came to doing technique, but he was able to pick up choreography much better. When asked about next year, Jonah says, “Am I excited? Very much.”
Current students who are already in Senior Dance Company–the highest level achievable–continued to work just as hard at the auditions and Ms. Byrd was extremely happy to see that.
Ms. Byrd wanted the audition to still be challenging for Senior Dance Co. and explains, “Company classes are often so busy working on our next performance that we don’t get to stop and dance or work on technique across the floor. I loved getting to see all of my current members shine in their across the floor combos as well as choreo combos.”
Ms. Byrd has made it clear that she loves both dance and her job because she added, “My favorite part was getting to dance with everyone. It filled my heart getting to dance with all of my current dancers. It was also special to me for them to see me dance with my heart!”
Ms. Byrd wraps up the placement process by saying, “I can’t wait to share this community with all of our new and current dance department members next year.”
Hawks don’t just fly here at River Hill, they leap and soar.