Walt Whitman Stories

WWHS Dance Program Featured in 10th Annual Stage the Change Conference

Written by Liz DeMonte | Jan 16, 2024 8:15:34 PM
In the spring of 2023, under the direction of Dr. Susan Turner Radin, students in the Whitman Dance Program collaboratively choreographed an original modern dance piece, Scantron, based on students' experiences with test anxiety and the pressures of testing in secondary education. To accompany the choreography, Whitman musician Andrew Lorente composed a score that included his original music combined with recordings of the dancers' voices that perfectly captured the feelings of pressure and anxiety induced by excessive testing. The piece Scantron was selected by the adjudication committee of Stage the Change: Theatre & Dance as Social Voice that was performed at the 10th annual conference at Tilles Center this November.
 
 
Also at year’s Stage the Change conference, Walt Whitman High School Junior Gracie DeMarinis was selected to interview keynote speaker and Tony Award winning actress Ali Stroker on the Tilles Center’s concert hall stage. Gracie had the opportunity to ask the inspiring actress her thoughts about how young performers like her might be able to make a difference in the world by using their voices within the arts.
 
 
 
We are so proud of our Whitman Dance and Music students and their willingness to explore difficult but relevant themes through the arts!
 
 
 
 
 
Scantron is based on students' experiences with test anxiety and the pressures of testing in secondary education.
 
 
 
The piece "Scantron" was selected by the adjudication committee of Stage the Change: Theatre & Dance as Social Voice.
 
 
 
To accompany the choreography, Whitman senior musician Andrew Lorente composed a score that included his original music combined with recordings of the dancers' voices.
 
 
 
 
 
WWHS junior Gracie DeMarines (right) was selected to interview keynote speaker and Tony Award winning actress Ali Stroker on the Tilles Center’s concert hall stage. Ali Stroker won the 2019 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical for her role as ‘Ado Annie’ in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! She next stars as a series regular in Netflix’s upcoming limited series, Echoes. She made history as the first actor in a wheelchair to appear on Broadway in Deaf West’s acclaimed 2015 revival of Spring Awakening. Film and television include The Glee Project, Fox’s Glee, Ozark, Only Murders in the Building, Ten Days in the Valley, Blue Bloods, Freeform’s The Bold Type, Lethal Weapon, and many more She co-wrote a novel published in 2021, The Chance to Fly, a middle-grade novel about a theater-loving girl who uses a wheelchair. Her mission to improve the lives of others through the arts, disabled or not, is captured in her motto: “Turning Your Limitations Into Your Opportunities.”
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