By Nitika Kaul ’12, Staff Writer

This year’s Fall Dance Concert was filled with blasts from the past, with the students performing pieces that had been showcased in previous concerts. The theme of the concert was one of celebrating dance’s fifteen year anniversary at NA.  As Ms. Lux explained at the concert, dance is the “youngest” of the arts at NA, and only fifteen years ago Ms. Ann Marie Keane founded and taught the first dance program.

This year, the dance concert celebrated Ms. Keane’s work, which has been further developed by the current dance teacher, Ms. Luxenberg.  Jacqueline Acierno ‘12 remarked, “It’s amazing to see how far the program has come in the past 15 years,” and the concert reflected all of the hard work that has gone into creating each piece of choreography.

To channel the theme of dance’s  “15^th Anniversary,” into the concert, all of the dance classes performed pieces that they collectively considered their favorites from previous concerts. This theme of adding elements from past concerts will extend to the spring performances as well. The pieces of choreography ranged from ballet to creative movement, and even featured a disco piece by the faculty dancers.

200 alumni were invited to attend this year’s concert, which has not been the case in past years.  Two alumni, Nick DiNicolangelo and Jason Luks, performed in the concert as well, each performing his own tap piece. Leila Hariri ’12 stated that she was blown away by their performances. DiNicolangelo and Luks, she felt, were both true performers who danced with charisma and character.

As Sabrina Merold ‘13 commented, “It was really interesting for the students to see how the pieces evolved over the years, and it was an opportunity for the alumni to reconnect with the modernized dance program.”  Hopefully the spring’s concert will similarly bring a positive reaction from the community by continuing this exciting theme.