“Creative Forces” is a yearly event put on every April by Huntington Beach High School’s Academy of the Performing Arts (APA) choreography class. This year many talented students collaborated to choreograph a collection of dances to make this event possible. Traditionally in dance shows the audience focuses on the dancers, but the choreographers deserve just as much credit.
Sadie Perlman: 2nd-year Choreography
Sadie Perlman is a senior at HBHS and an acting major in APA. Along with taking acting classes on campus, she takes choreography. For “Creative Forces”, she has created two pieces that will be performed by APA Dance’s Tap Ensemble and an independent piece presented by hand-selected people from a variety of APA departments.
“Can You Dig It?”- Performed by APA’s Tap Ensemble
One of Perlman’s pieces “Can You Dig It?” is a tap piece that aims to glorify the inventive minds of dancers and the individuality of the art of dance. Perlman’s goal was to have the dancers enjoy themselves on stage and for it not to be just another routine for them to memorize. Perlman enjoyed the creative process and said “[t]here [are] some group sections but the dancers have just as much choreography credit as me.”
“Work It Out”-Independent
“Work It Out” is a fun play on 80’s aerobic videos with playful movements. When creating the steps to teach her dancers, Perlman looked for what she thought the audience would find entertaining and silly. Perlman said, “It usually was me and maybe a couple of other people messing around and trying to combine workout movements with some common dance movement.”
Roxie Brookhyser: 1st-year Choreographer
Roxie Brookhyser is a junior at HBHS and is a dance major in APA Dance, involved in Tap and Modern Ensemble. This is Brookhyser’s first year in Choreography and she has been given Musical Theater Dance to choreograph her dance “OBSESSION” on.
“OBSESSION”-Performed by Musical Theater Dance
“OBSESSION” tackles the idea of drug use and how it can erode a person’s character traits. The dance uses movements that show a slow downhill progression to represent order gradually turning into chaos. Brookhyser’s movement ideas were to contrast what would be seen at a dance recital. When Brookhyser was asked about her movement inventions, she said “One of my favorite movements to use is crawling because it can mean so many different things.”
Sam Borenstein: 1st-year assistant
Sam Borenstein, a senior at HBHS, is a dance major in APA Dance Company and an APA Musical Theater minor. To him, being an assistant gives a different perspective of what it takes to build a dance. Borenstein has been assisting Roxie Brookhyser and Mikayla Romero in developing their dances for “Creative Forces”.
“I’ve essentially just been another mind and body that the choreographers can use to bring their piece to life,” said Borenstein.
Mikayla Romero: 2nd-year Choreographer
Mikayla Romero is an HBHS senior and is also a part of the APA Dance Company. Both Romero and Roxie Brookhyser were given the Musical Theater Dance class to split for their pieces. Romero chose to create “Love and War” with her dancers for her part.
“Love and War”-Performed by Musical Theater Dance
“Love and War” is crafted to explore the emotions that come with a breakup or fighting with loved ones. Romero took the sorrow from heartbreak and translated it into a dance about gratefulness for the other person despite the pain. To design the steps, Romero chose a feeling and matched it with a verse of the song.
“[Emotions of] regret, hurt, defeat, [can] then change to hope for a better future and overall gratitude for the relationship,” Romero said.
Alison Conlay: 2nd-year Choreographer
Alison Conlay is an HBHS senior at APA Dance Company. They were given an APA Dance Modern ensemble and an independent piece. Their class dance is called “Always an Angel, Never a God” and their independent piece is called “Effigy.”
“Always an Angel, Never a God”-Performed by Modern Ensemble
“Always an Angel, Never a God” demonstrates the fear of feeling forced to grow up. As the dance is performed, the dancers come to find comfort in friendships and others around. “An idea that stuck with me thinking about my graduating class,” Conlay said.
Conlay expressed that one struggle in teaching this dance was the number of dancers they had. For them, having to change the method they used last year was a must to adjust to more dancers.
“Effigy”-Independent
“Effigy” is an experimental dance for both Conlay and their dancers. The whole piece shows the interpretation of how the music sounds to the choreographer and how the movement then translates to the dancers. The dynamic between the dancers and Conlay seems very much like a telephone game. Conlay communicates the movements to their dancers and they take the movement and make it their own.
“[Effigy’s] creation was full of experimentation,” Conlay said.
Creative Forces is a wonderful show that supports the APA Dance Department and the choreographers who all put in their imagination, skill, and time to express an array of emotions. The event is showcased from April 11th-14th and tickets can be found at HBAPA.com. There are so many more talented pieces created by other student choreographers, so if you are looking for a way to spend your weekend, this may be the thing for you.
