“Pure Imagination” Takes WHS Stage

Photo Credit: Steve Fogel

Kayla Kamlley, Isabel Bustos, Luana Jury-Fogel, Danielle Nodine, Laura Stelma, and Kyra Bowser begin the show wearing cream dresses dancing to delicate melodies.

Makayla Karr-Warner, Student Life Editor
May 25, 2012
Filed under Student Life

The stage is set. Everyone quietly runs to their positions, freezes trying to make absolutely no noise, waiting for the lights to cue in the beginning of the dance. The 11th and 12th of May, the Performing Arts Center at Woodside High school hosted the Dance Show, “Pure Imagination.” The entire performance was put together by Kim Harvath, the Dance Team coach, as well as all of the students on the Dance Team in the short four to six weeks prior to Friday, May 11th.

The show consisted of solos, duets, and group dances choreographed by the dancers as well as Harvath and the team captain, Kyra Bowser as well as a special dance tribute to member Kayla Kamlley who has recovered from brain tumor surgery. It started off with a short and sweet composition of “Pure Imagination” with junior Traci Tolles and senior Leah O’Sullivan playing the violin, junior Lexi Philips playing the Viola, freshman Carol Lopez playing the Cello, and junior Jessica Page playing the Bass.

After each and every performance, the crowd went wild. All those who attended, parents, grandparents, siblings, friends, would scream, yell out names, and clap in support of the dancers on stage. During the intermission, the audience murmured how impressed they were with the ability and work ethic of the team members. Many sat or stood in awe and their excitement for the next act radiated throughout the entire building.

Each dance piece drew from different types of dances, which was perfectly coordinated with the music. The music in each piece, may have started off as a slow, sweet melody accompanied by soft ballet moves and then quickly the music morphs into dubstep and the dance moves become more of those akin to hip hop. Nevertheless, each piece was executed gracefully by the dancers despite whatever type of music that was playing.

The proud smiles on the dancers faces illuminated the whole stage, showing how happy they were to be a part of the dance team. Team captain, junior Kyra Bowser talks about how every single member works extremely hard and puts so much effort into each practice because the entire team knows that they “have a big expectation to live up to because dance team has just thrived for so long at Woodside.” Dance team member Junior Luana Jury Fogel says that the team “was a little behind schedule, but everyone has been working hard, so it’s going to be a good one.”

In Act I, a special dance tribute and picture slideshow was given to Dance Team member Kayla Kamlley who suffered a brain tumor and had surgery that safely removed it. “The tumor was on the pituitary gland, so I have no hormones,” which means Kamlley must “take a lot of hormone replacements which help me feel better, but it gets annoying sometimes.” Other dance team members danced alongside Kamlley and at the end of the piece, the entire team sat on the stage with Kamlley to watch the slideshow and see how far Kamlley has come since her surgery in October. For Kamlley, dancing with her team members again is a new experience. She describes not being at dance made her “feel isolated and strange, but they support me and encourage me to keep dancing” and “they reassure me that I can still dance and am still the same dancer I used to be.” Recently coming back to dance has reminded Kamlley of how how much happiness she found in dancing even though now it is completely different. The slideshow made Kamlley realize that she has “overcome a challenge, to keep having faith,” as well as that the recovery will take time. Also, the photos in the slideshow, made her recognize that she has to be thankful that she is still alive and that she has a great mother.

At the end of Act II, the audience watched the senior dance piece. Each senior danced to music and a slideshow full of pictures of them as children as well as their senior portraits. Seniors Danielle Nodine will be attending Sacramento State University, April Adonis will attending Sonoma State University, and David Spain will be attending Pepperdine University. Harvath will be missing the seniors because some of them I’ve worked with their whole four years.”

As the 2011-2012 Dance Team year comes to a close, Harvath recounts how “this was the most talented team [WHS has] had.”

Tags: ballet, Dance Show, dancing, dubstep, hip-hop, kim harvath, music, Pure Imagination, WHS dance show, woodside high school

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