Citrus choreography students displayed their moves at the Haugh Performing Arts Center on May 27.
Director Jennifer Allgaier has taught dance at Citrus for three years and directed her first showcase.
“Dancing in Heaven” opened with 13 student dancers. They were all dressed in colorful neon clothes making them pop when dancing across the stage together, despite several miscues throughout the scene.
The next number “Before the Game…” was choreographed and performed solo by Ricardo Puentes, to the music of Mel Torme. Puentes added audience interaction by pointing toward audience with lights flashing in those directions.
The next scene called “Refusal in Belief” was just P-E-R-F-E-C-T.
Everything from the choreography to the lights, the mood to the clothes, the white masks to the music was on point. The routine received the loudest round of applause of the night and set the standard for the remaining numbers.
Although a few performances showed promise, no other scenes really came close, leading me to believe that this number would have lent itself to a great finale…but it wasn’t.
“Island Grove” was a nice transition number, with choreography by Anthony Clinton, the unmistakable performer who frankly stole the show.
Clinton seemed to be in almost every dance, usually center stage. He had an array of moves and could perform any dance style imaginable.
Another commendable number was the highly energetic “Detention” Set in a classroom, this scene focused on students stuck in detention who decide to let loose when the teacher steps out, set to music by Sonic Revolution, The Cataracs, and Porter Robinson.
Students are required to showcase their training from their semester-long class in front of a live audience.
Overall, the showcase was a success, offering many different styles of dance that voided the few random miscues.
The show ended with “Station Surfing,” choreography by Clinton and music by Tyga, Dope, and Madonna.
For this number all the students took the stage, including Nina Alas, Katie Amrhein, Art Ball, Trivara Bufford, Haihua Chiang, Anthony Clinton, Shawna Cook, Claudia Espinosa, Courntey Gilbertsen, Archie Guadalupe, Josslyn Lara, Lisa Lopez, Savanna Manzo, Jairus Pecson, Tony Pham, Ricardo Puentes, Leticia Reed, Cammy Sakaue, Tania Salgado, Mariah Sams, Kaori Shimoushiro and Nanami Suzuki.
After a bow to thank the audience, the students danced off stage with the satisfaction of knowing all their hard work and training had paid off.
