PORT ANGELES — This is no ballet recital.
This is “A Dance Showcase: Mozart to Hip Hop,” with performers from preschool to high school, frolicking from “The Lion King” to “Footloose,” on Saturday night and Sunday afternoon.
Curtain time for “Mozart to Hip Hop” is 7 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday at the Port Angeles High School Performing Arts Center, 304 E. Park Ave., with tickets at $15 for adults, $8 for seniors and students with ID and free for children age 6 and younger.
The showcase “is just very entertaining,” said its creator, Port Angeles Dance Center founder Mary Marcial.
“There’s a lot of variety in the music and the styles of dance,” as well as in the age of the dancers.
The youngest are the 4-year-olds, students in the Introduction to Dance class. And they have been known two steal the show, Marcial said.
Their elders are the seven high school seniors, most of whom have been studying at the Port Angeles Dance Center since they were 4 years old.
Each teen will perform her own original solo dance; this year’s soloists are Megan Heiner, Elizabeth Helwick, Laurel Jenkins, Abby Kheriaty, Bethany O’Connor, Onna Raemer and Lindsey Wilson.
‘Footloose’ finale
The theme song from “Footloose” will be the finale, with a cast of 16 high school-age dancers.
“They have been rehearsing really hard,” Marcial said. The spring showcase “has gotten bigger and bigger . . . I like big dances. I like big leaps and lots of movement.”
So do her students.
Helwick, 18, is one of the soon-to-be graduates to perform in seven pieces this weekend.
They include her solo to Alicia Keys’ “Girl on Fire;” a jazz dance to a Macklemore song; a ballet dance to a number from “The Lion King;” a dance en pointe to “Float Downstream” and the seniors’ ensemble piece to “Skyfall.”
The most inspiring aspect of all this, Helwick said, is Marcial.
“She is a great teacher and a friend to us all. She can be hard on us at times,” the dancer said. “But she is just trying to push us to our greatest potential.”
The showcase brings 19 dance pieces, all quite short, Marcial said. The longest is just about five minutes.
‘Costumes are cool’
“The costumes are cool,” she added, “but they’re not elaborate,” since the show is about the performers, not any fancy outfits.
Marcial, who founded the Dance Center in 1991, has been creating showcases since 1992.
She studied voice and dance at both Stanford University in California and Northwestern University in Chicago, and danced professionally in Chicago with Gus Giordano and Lou Conte.
In Port Angeles, she has sought to give her students more than classical ballet and jazz training.
She also wants to share the joy of dance — and the confidence the art form can give a young man or woman.
Tickets will be available at the door Saturday and Sunday, but those who want to purchase in advance can do so at Northwest Fudge & Confections, 108 W. First St.; the shop’s phone number is 360-452-8299.
More information about Port Angeles Dance Center, located at 124 E. Front St., can be found at 360-452-8746.
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Features Editor Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5062, or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
