Published Nov. 8, 2022
BY ELLA GAILY
The biannual Carmel High School dance show offers many performances but it’s the 8- to 12-minute dances with deeper meanings, set to instrumental music or foreign lyrics, that really connect with the audience.
Three years ago CHS dance teacher Kristine Tarozzi began Dance IV Honors in which students choreograph these capstone dances.
“It was to show rigor in the arts and for students to be challenged,” explains Tarozzi about experienced dancers who ended up repeating Dance IV. “We had dancers of high caliber, and I didn’t want them to repeat the same thing every year.”
The small class size allows the honors class to coexist in the Dance IV class. But only those who have taken Dance IV for one year can take it, and many choose not to due to the large responsibility.
Senior Ava Camargo will be unveiling her first-ever capstone “Casa de Amistad” in the fall show.
“The music was kind of a joke,” says Camargo. “I was fooling around with music I downloaded from my childhood, but it stuck.”
Camargo is Columbian and is using Latin music to show a personal message.
“The first song is about how when I started dancing I didn’t take it seriously, but I found my group there and it became my safe place,” explains Camargo. “The second song represents dance’s hardships and the individual stories I’ve come to know. And the last song is my individual journey and hardships, but I had a community there for support.”
(courtesy of CARMEL HIGH DANCE DEPARTMENT)
Senior Sage Melton was a rare junior in the class last year, and though she knew from the start she wanted to reflect her passion for environmental issues, she found her music first.
The first song, “On the Nature of Daylight” by Max Richter, portrayed Earth’s beauty, and Ben Frost’s “The Theory of Machines” had dancers spreading black paint across themselves to emulate pollution, before depicting Earth’s ruination during “The Crumbling” by Valgeir Sigurdsson. “Ne Me Quitte Pas” by Nina Simone inspired a final dance representing Earth’s cry for help.
“This year when I was brainstorming, one teacher had us do a perception exercise to let information come to us, which was eye-opening,” explains Melton about the origins of her capstone “Perception III” for the upcoming fall show. “It’s about the three stages of perception, which are stimulation and selection, organization and interpretation.”
Melton will create silhouettes of the dancers to show that one’s perception of the world is a reflection of who they are.
Senior Grace Gargotta was the only other junior Dance IV Honors student last year and her capstone “The Ones We Meet” from last year’s spring show had dancers using suitcases to depict an airport, the prime example of making connections with a variety of people.
“I came up with the idea in the summer but the music came to me about when it was due,” explains Gargotta, “though I already knew what kind I wanted.”
Gargotta’s capstone won’t begin rehearsals until February, but her process so far couldn’t be more different from last year.
“I’m working on a narrative film for video production,” Gargotta says. “I’m creating that into a dance. I want to do something completely different from last year.”
Yet student choreographers have just 40 minutes a week to rehearse in class, plus a few after-school rehearsals.
“The extra rehearsals are needed,” Melton explains. “At first, I had a lot of big ambitions, but then you kind of have to tone it down and take a more reasonable approach.”
Melton and Gargotta reflect on last year’s overwhelmingly positive response.
“We put in our pieces to the Monterey CTE competition and both got recognized,” Gargotta says.
The process helps with their career direction, as choreography was new to them before entering CHS Dance.
“I still want to dance in college, but I want to work towards a career in choreography,” says Camargo. “It’s the part of this program I’m most passionate about, and it’s a career that goes further because you can’t dance forever.”
Tarozzi’s goal is to prepare these students for college dance, with greater work ethic, creativity and passion, and to showcase that to the audience.
The fall dance show will be showcased on Nov. 17-18 at 7 p.m. in the CHS Performing Arts Center.
