The theater was fully sold out for the Charity Dance Show on Friday Dec. 9, featuring the dance classes taught at Arcadia High School (AHS), other Arcadia Unified School District (AUSD) schools along with dance organizations outside of the district.

The Charity Dance Show performed at the Performing Arts Center (PAC) donated a portion of its proceeds to the Malala Fund, helping them reach their goal of 12 years of free and safe education for all girls. The Malala Fund was established by Malala Yousafzai, a Pakistani education activist. Yousafzai was born in Mingora, Pakistan, in 1997. On Sept. 1, 2008, Yousafzai gave her first speech, called “How Dare the Taliban Take Away My Basic Right to Education?” Yousafzai has continued her campaign and today, The Malala Fund has already raised over $47 million and has invested all of it into the education of more than 758,000 children worldwide. 

Starting off the night, AHS social science teacher Mr. Paul Green stepped onto the stage and introduced the first performers of the night, Orchesis. Choreographed by students of Orchesis itself, the first dance started off the night with a holiday spirit by dancing to “Magic Spirit.”

“Orchesis has been preparing for the Charity Dance Show for about 5 months, [and] it took numerous 7:30 am times, lunch practices or afternoon rehearsals to learn our choreography, staging, and formations,” explained AHS senior Celena Fu, an Orchesis member who performed in 4 pieces during the dance show.

“Before I performed, I was slightly nervous but more excited and content. This is my last Charity Dance Show as an Orchesis member so any sign of nervousness was washed away by the excitement I felt,” said Fu. “After the performance, I was just happy. Really happy.” 

Green introduced the rest of the dance performances, the whole show adding up to 18 total performances. Along with Orchesis, Intermediate Dance, and Beginning Dance, Dana Middle School (DMS) and First Ave Middle School (FAMS) were invited to perform in the dance show. DMS’ Auxiliary performed their piece to the song “Torch of Liberty” by The Washington Winds while FAMS’ Dance class danced to the song “Diamonds” by Sam Smith. Other organizations from the Los Angeles area performed, including HitList and Rogue Makers. HiitList performed to “HitList Hotel”, and the Rogue Makers performed to“ Dreams, Don’t Stop Get It”.

The Intermediate and Beginning Dance classes performed wonderfully, promising talented and hard-working dancers for next year’s Orchesis. Intermediate classes period 2 and period 5 danced to “Quietly Yours,” and “Cold as Ice,” respectively. 

Intermediate dancer sophomore Elisha Chen spoke about her experience. “I performed a Jazz-style dance [and] before I performed, my heart was racing with jitters. The adrenaline was beginning to hit me, and I hoped that I would be able to do well. Everybody around me was visibly and audibly feeling the same way too, so I felt comforted by that fact,” said Chen. “I prepared for the event by running the routine in my head and assuring myself that it would be fine.”

“I think I performed well, [and] I can confidently say that I’m proud of my performance, which is something that makes me very happy,” reflected Chen.

Beginning Dance classes period 3, period 4, and period 6 had an amazing performance, which was choreographed by their dance teacher Mrs.Liza Tedford Period 3 danced to the song “Situation” by Yazoo. Period 4 performed to “Carwash” by Rose Royce. Period 6 was choreographed to a remix of “Feel It Still.”

“I felt super nervous when we were going on stage but once we started I had a lot of fun,” said AHS freshman Ellie Wu in period 6 Beginning Dance. “I felt really proud of myself and my class because I think that we did pretty good, and we worked so hard for this.”

This year’s Dance Charity Show was a huge success! The wonderful performance by the AUSD students and the LA organizations brought the crowd to life. The show was a memorable experience for not only the audience members but also the students performing that night. Congratulations to everyone who performed for giving the audience a unique and unforgettable experience!

Photo Courtesy of AUSD DCI Wesley Chen and Angela Ren