RUSH 2023
Dancer & Choreographer
Rush is a celebration of dance. No matter what size you are or how much experience you may have, all people are welcome. This event allows student choreographers to bring their visions to life in a way they never thought possible.
This year, I received the opportunity to choreograph not one, but two dances: a small group dance and a solo dance. I worked hard to ensure that my dancers felt comfortable on stage and that they understood the steps that I taught them. I wanted to make sure that by the time we were done dancing, we would leave the audience with something they would never forget.
Lily
Written by Alan Walker, K-391 & Emelie Hollow
Small Group (10 dancers)
Lily was a little girl, afraid of the big wide world. She grew up within her castle walls. Now and then she tried to run, and then on the night with the setting sun, she went in the woods away, so afraid, all alone.
They warned her, "Don't go there! There's creatures who are hiding in the dark!" Then something came creeping, it told her:
"Don't you worry, just follow everywhere I go, top of all the mountains or valley low, give you everything you've been dreaming of, just let me in."
"Everything you want in gold, I'll be the magic story you've been told and you'll be safe under my control, just let me in."
This song tells a story about a little girl named Lily. She had been sheltered from the outside world all her life from inside a beautiful castle; a castle which was located near a large, dark woods that no one dared to enter, for they feared that whoever went in would never come back out.
One day curiosity got the best of Lily, and she ran into the woods, unaware of the dangers that were lurking in its shadows. Although she was told to never venture outside the safety of her castle walls, and the creatures of the forest warned her to stay away, Temptation still found her and lured her in with a promise: That she would give her everything she ever wanted...under one condition.
Lost Control
Written by Alan Walker & Sorana
Senior Dance (Solo)
Mirrors they never lie
Don't see myself inside
Why can't I get it right? I don't know...
You're always watching me fall
Shadows they like my wall.
Why do I feel so small? I don't know...
So I walk into the dead of night
Where my monsters like to hide
Chaos feels so good inside, now I know...
I've lost, I've lost
I've lost control again
Always do the same and I'm to blame
I've lost control again
I don't, I don't
I don't know who I am
Always do the same and I'm to blame
I've lost control again
I know that I'm a mess
But I ain't trying to be the best
So, whatever's coming next
I better pray
Never said I was an angel
I am damaged all the way
So, whatever's coming next
I better pray
The story of Lily continues here through a combination of Contemporary and Native American Fancy Dance. Although it may seem like it, this isn't the first time something like this has happened to Lily. She's been down this road before, constantly being tricked into being controlled by someone other than herself, and she's sick of ending up with the same results. But now, she is breaking the cycle, admitting her faults, and spreading her wings to take flight toward a new beginning.
Both of my dances are choreographed in loving memory of my Grandma Peggy, who has always been there to watch me perform since I was a little girl. Although she didn't get to physically watch my last performances before I head out into the real world, it comforts me to think that she still had a front-row seat to watch me dance from up in the kingdom of heaven.