Rather than stressing out about remembering their marks Saturday, April 30, two PHS dancers had to learn all new choreography after the lead dislocated her shoulder and was unable to perform.

This year PHS advanced and intermediate dance put on Stepford Wives for their Spring Dance Concert, April 29, 30 and May 1, with senior Stella Thorsen planned as the lead. However, after Thorsen injured herself Saturday morning, senior Olivia Arrabit had to step in to learn the choreography.

“I had to learn all of her dances in two hours before the show,” Arrabit said. ¨It was really hard and stressful but somehow I pulled it off.¨

Arrabit originally had an important role in Stepford Wives as well, so junior Gillian Peters stepped into Arrabit’s role and had to learn her dances.

¨We found out at some point in the afternoon that Stella for sure wouldn’t be able to dance Saturday night,” PHS dance teacher Amy Moorhead said. ¨We met in the theater at 4:30, which is when Olivia and Gillian started learning two months of choreography in a couple of hours.¨

An additional layer of complication to learning Thorsen’s part was learning the duet with senior Leland McCallister, who played the husband in Stepford Wives. McCallister came in early to help Arrabit learn the duet and everyone on cast and crew rose to the occasion, Moorhead said.

¨Personally I did not think it was a huge challenge for me,¨ McCallister said. ¨It encouraged us as an entire ensemble to work a little harder, which resulted in Saturday night’s performance to be much more of a success.¨

The final student choreography showcase is on May 19 and the current plan is to do the Spring Dance showcase again. In addition to repeating Stepford Wives there might also be some new pieces or pieces brought back from the December show, Moorhead said.

¨We want to keep the door open for Stella to come back and do it,¨ Moorhead said.

Although there was a whirlwind behind set as the dancers had to learn new choreography, to the audience members it appeared as if they did not miss a beat, senior Lisa Bublitz said.

¨I was really impressed with how they were able to put different dancers in different positions in under 3 hours,¨ Bublitz said.