On May 3 and 4, the dance class performed “Tale as Old as Time” in the Alan Harvey Theater, their last concert for both the school year and the foreseeable future. As of the proposed budget cuts from Feb. 14, the traditional dance class will be cut, but dance at Piedmont is not gone. The 9th grade Dance P.E. class will be modified to include dancers from all grade levels.
The dance program has existed for over 70 years, the last 30 being led by Dance Program Director Amy Moorhead. The program has had its fair share of ebbs and flows in enrollment, style of class, and even existence of the class. At one point it was an after-school class that put on concerts, then a few years later, there were five different sections of dance, Moorhead said.
Currently, 19 students are enrolled in the concert performing dance class, while in the 2016-17 school year, there were 45 students. President of the Piedmont Board of Education Veronica Thigpen said the Board proposed cutting the class due to its lower-than-average student enrollment.
At the Feb. 14 Board of Education meeting, public commentary was made for the proposed cut. As of that time, the expansion of the 9th grade Dance PE to all grades was private knowledge. Junior Mackenzie Seto-Nguyen spoke, advocating for the Board to reconsider cutting the program.
“I don’t like public speaking, but it felt like I was saying what I needed to say. Showing that dance has been a saving class for me. Dance is safe for me, I don’t know how else to explain it. Safe,” Seto-Nguyen said.
Junior Haylee Cheang has been in the dance class for the last two years and at first was very disappointed that the board was leaning towards cutting the program.
“Dance provides two performances a school year, it provides spaces for artists to express themselves, and it is an opportunity for artists to get PE credit,” Cheang said.
With the traditional dance class being dissolved into the PE classes, it reduces the number of non-required classes solely dedicated to the performing arts.
“I don’t want our school to get too stem-focused, because that’s sort of where we’re headed. I just think it’s so important to keep the artistic value of the school,” Cheang said.
After the Board of Education published the proposed district cuts, Moorhead said she had several PHS graduates reach out to her, concerned about the dance program.
“These were students I hadn’t had communication with for over 20 years, and they said, ‘Oh my gosh, the dance program meant so much to me’,” Moorhead said.
Initially it was unclear to the public if the cut to the performing arts dance class had been made official and what that would entail. It was confirmed to TPH by Thigpen and Assistant Principal Joseph Marik that it is now official and that the 9th grade Dance PE class will be the sole aspect of the dance program.
“I feel like there is going to be a large imbalance between effort [by students in the classes],” Cheang said.
Cheang said she is more optimistic than pessimistic, and there is a chance this new format could integrate older dancers with new freshmen, but Seto-Nguyen said she is still concerned with the ability for returning dancers to be able to express themselves through the medium they love.
“By combining the Dance program with Dance PE, you are delegating [dance] to just physical activity and not art. Dance is so much more than physical activity. When dancing, you can show what your inner motions are and tie into what you’re expressing. You can tell stories, you can extend to the audience without using words,” Seto-Nguyen said.
But as long as people learn to love dance and cultivate it outside of school then the program will be doing its job, Seto-Nguyen said.
While a majority of students at PHS don’t take the dance class, they were still, in some way, affected by the originally proposed cut.
“I saw on Instagram a bunch of people were trying to petition to keep it,” said senior Dorian Poole.
Sophomore Caleb Canada participated in “Cabaret” earlier this year, a production directed by Moorhead. Canada said it was his first time being exposed to the dancing and theatrical side of productions.
“I’m not too big on dance myself, I’m more of a science person, but I feel like the people who enjoy dance, they shouldn’t have that taken away from them,” Canada said, “Cutting off higher pathways isn’t fair to dancers. At least we have something so people can try it out and see if they like it.”
There are many questions that have yet to be answered when it comes to what the dance program will look like next year, but one thing is clear; dance at Piedmont is not going away.
