For student dancers, fun and joy in motion
Schools gather at Rouse Theatre for 25th Howard County Dance Festival
Wave after wave of color and motion washed through the Jim Rouse Theatre: Flapper dresses, polka dot rocker skirts, leotards, Flamenco gowns, bow ties and short and full-length gowns flowed across the stage in jazz, contemporary, ballet, modern, African, tap and lyrical dance.
“Dance is about coming together as a family, as a group, and displaying everything you have to offer,” said Julia Gruppo, a16-year-old dancer from Centennial High School.
Coming together was a strong theme of the 25th annual Howard County Dance Festival, which brought together some 500 county students in a celebration at the Rouse theater at Wilde Lake High School in Columbia last weekend.
The festival — part show, part judging and instruction — featured students in Howard County schools’ dance education program in its 12 area high schools.
The dancers performed in a morning show that was essentially a dress rehearsal.
In the afternoon, they danced again for family, friends and festival adjudicators Carol Hess, a co-artistic director of the Baltimore Dance Project at the University of See DANCERS, page 4
“Dance is about coming together as a family, as a group, and displaying everything you have to offer,” said Julia Gruppo, a16-year-old dancer from Centennial High School.
Coming together was a strong theme of the 25th annual Howard County Dance Festival, which brought together some 500 county students in a celebration at the Rouse theater at Wilde Lake High School in Columbia last weekend.
The festival — part show, part judging and instruction — featured students in Howard County schools’ dance education program in its 12 area high schools.
The dancers performed in a morning show that was essentially a dress rehearsal.
In the afternoon, they danced again for family, friends and festival adjudicators Carol Hess, a co-artistic director of the Baltimore Dance Project at the University of See DANCERS, page 4
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