Lineage Dance at Sequoyah

It’s time for a “reboot” (of dance classes at Sequoyah)! From November 1 through mid-January, Sequoyah students will go to Lineage Performing Arts Center in Pasadena twice a week to learn dance and prepare for a dance recital. Fifteen students have signed up for dance classes. 

Sequoyah’s High School Director Marc Alongi is excited about the opportunities it affords students to be both active and artistic. Alongi explained, “dance is interesting, because it’s not just a physical activity. It is also an art.… For example, we’ve had a yoga class, which is an interesting crossover of some philosophy and history and culture with a physical activity. But we haven’t had anything that was a crossover with the arts.” While the dance program is new to most Sequoyah students, according to Alongi, it is actually “a reboot. [Sequoyah] had dance before…it was probably in 2017-18 or [20]18-19, that [Seqoyah] had modern dance. And there was a small group that did it.” This time around, the students of Sequoyah made it happen. According to Alongi, “we have a lot of interest, we had requests from students, we thought we would try again.” Additionally, Alongi also is very excited about working with Lineage Dance Company, as it is an organization that does “wonderful community-based arts work.”

Students enrolled in the class are very excited about the opportunity to challenge themselves around their peers. Chloe Zavistovski ’24 explained, “I feel like I’m always more nervous doing stuff around people that I already know…But I also think that it’s more fun to do it with people that I know… I’m mostly excited because a lot of them [the students taking dance] are my friends and I’m going to be doing something I love with people that I love.” Zavistovski is very confident in her dance abilities as she has been dancing for a long time. For her, there was no hesitation in joining. Zavistovski explained, “I always really loved dancing. And it’s something that I’ve been doing for a long time..”

Another student that will participate in dance is sophomore Beth Huggins ’25. She is excited to collaborate with friends and learn a new skill. Huggins explained, “I always enjoyed it and I just wanted to get better at it…Also all my friends were going to do it, so it seemed like a fun way to spend time.” When it comes to performing live, she said, “ I feel like I’m confident with my speaking publicly, but I don’t know about dancing just because I’m not a dancer really. I’m definitely a little bit nervous.” However, she is also excited to become more flexible. Overall she thinks “it’s going to be really cool and just something new!”

The Sequoyah community is excited for a new opportunity for its students that everyone will benefit from. It is a great way to connect the arts with physical activity, and gives students the chance to try something new. Even if you are not signed up, there will be a fabulous show at the end for everyone in the community to enjoy!