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LET’S DANCE!
This past fall semester, “we had the most students audition for the upper school dance show that we ever had,” noted Laura Lang-Ree, Harker’s K-12 performing arts chair. “We’ve done nothing different. No new publicity, no emails.” Harker students have been dancing for a very long time. Dance instruction was offered to students at Miss Harker’s School as early as 1903, and was introduced into the regular curriculum by the 1920s. In subsequent decades, dance instruction expanded to include Miss Harker’s kindergartners and became part of the summer programs after the school’s merger with the Palo Alto Military Academy. Dance teacher Laura Rae further developed the dance program at Harker Academy after joining the school in the 1980s, directing routines for the spring musical and leading the after-school dance program, which started in 1983. “[Howard and Diana] Nichols were … very passionate about performing arts overall, and Diana had a special love for dance,” said LangRee, who joined Harker in 1995. The addition of the upper school brought further growth to the dance program, including some academic dance courses. Now, students K-12 can learn a wide range of styles, from ballet to jazz to hip-hop. Currently, the program boasts six audition-only dance groups across grades 4-12, each of which attracts dozens of students to auditions every year. Students dance for live audiences as early as kindergarten, and dance is one of six disciplines of focus included in the upper school Conservatory’s certificate program. these two pages, clockwise from lower left: Ava Chen, grade 2; Tamlyn Doll, grade 12; Yejin Song, grade 7; Hazal Gurcan, grade 12; Chris Gong, grade 10; Brandon Labio, grade 2; Isabella Ribeiro, grade 5; Jacqueline Soraire, grade 5; Sabrina Zhu, grade 6; Sally Zhu, grade 6 22
A familiar refrain among dance students and alumni is how dance classes initially just seemed like a fun activity to do with their friends. “I was new to the school in fifth grade,” recalled senior Tamlyn Doll. “I asked [my friends], ‘What are you doing after
HAR K E R MAGA Z I N E l FA L L/W I N T E R 2016
school?’ and they said, ‘Oh, I have dance.’” She opted to try it herself and “fell in love with it pretty fast,” she said. “It seemed like a fun after-school activity and a lot of my friends were doing it,” added Villarreal. “Over the years, some people trickled out of the program, but I stayed because of how amazing the teachers are and how passionate everyone is about dancing.” This social element has not gone unnoticed by dance faculty. “I think it’s very rewarding for them to be with their friends,” said K-8 dance teacher Gail Palmer. “They really support each other.” Many students also discovered that dance offers a unique form of expression through movement. “I love expression in the form of physicality,” said Emre Ezer, grade 12, a performer in Harker dance shows since seventh grade. “I love pretty much every form of expression, but it’s especially fun using your own body.” Junior Liana Wang, a member of the upper school’s Varsity Dance Troupe, said that dance is “my freedom and my expression of the soul. I find that the freedom of being able to express anything motivates me to continue the art form. I feel less restricted and bound to the expectations of the world.” Those expectations can often be a source of stress, something students have found can be alleviated through dance. “It’s an emotional outlet,” said Hazal Gurcan, grade 12. “I feel like when I dance, my brain is kind of able to figure out what’s stressing me out.” “Dance is the way I relieve any sort of stress, so being in college, it is a must for me to continue with it!” exclaimed Noel Banerjee ’15, a dance minor at Loyola Marymount University, where she is also a member of the dance team. Apart from the uniquely fun and expressive nature of the art form, Harker’s support of the dance program and its faculty have played a large part in keeping students interested. Wang, who has performed with several companies and studios outside Harker, said that the Harker program’s distinct lack of competitiveness has enabled her and many other