Dance jam highlights contrasting cultures

Jessica Qian, Staff Writer
May 7, 2015

In the biannual dance showcase, dance jam students performed various cultural dances including Yoga Ball Drumming, Seksmannsril, Sicilian Tarantella, Patty Cake Polka, Zodiac, Korobushka, Stepping, African and Bollywood. Special education students and the hip hop duo Klutch was also featured in the showcase.

“It think it was really awesome, the audience was super interactive and everybody was having fun on stage,” senior Amber Young-Ripplinger said.

“It was fun to be with everybody and having people see what we worked on,” senior Jayda Zimmerman said. “There was more of a range of different dances [than past years] and we got to learn about more cultures.”

Klutch members Lloyd Marimbire and Allan Nota were impressed by this year’s showcase and had fun performing in it. The duo has performed at a couple of events and taught classes at West Fargo.

“It was a good event to be part of,” Marimbire. “It was amazing, especially the [yoga ball drumming].”

“We really like working with the kids, [this year’s performance] was a turn in the right direction,” Nota said.

This year, the showcase ended with a special presentation from senior Manita Monger. At the end of her class’ Bollywood dance routine, she talked about the region near where the style of dance is from, Nepal. As a native nepali, Monger thought it was important to bring awareness of the recent earthquake to the school. Her counselor and her planned the presentation and are currently trying to involve the school in raising money for the nepalese people.

“Children are out of homes right now without food and clean water to drink and I wanted people to know about it to help them,” Monger said.