Arts
PAGE 6
October 2015
Arts
PAGE 7
This Shift is Getting Real
Hannah Peterson
Arts Editor
Auditions were held
last June for the new
Classical and Contemporary Dance
(CCD) Conservatory
performance group:
Shift. Dancers in the
seven-member group
will represent OCSA at
professional and casual
events.
Shift was brought together to get students
“out into the community so people can
see what the Classical
Contemporary Conservatory is about,” says
Director Steven Hyde.
The majority of the
dances won’t be traditional classical, “probably not your typical
tutus and stuff like that,
but maybe neoclassical or avant garde sort
of modern stuff,” said
Hyde.
The group will perform at various outside
events, such as weddings. Hyde mentioned
specifically performing at the elementary school across the
street from OCSA, the
Orange County Educational Arts Academy. Faculty have not
scheduled any dances
yet, but Hyde said the
senior solos are be-
ing used as backup
choregraphy in case
a gig arrives with little
notice.
The audition for CCD
dancers to represent
the group was judged
by Hyde and other faculty members.
Sophmore Ariel Vidrio
(CCD) described the
auditions, “They give
you this long combo
and you’ve never seen
it before and some stuff
doesn’t quite feel right
because you’re either
not on point or sometimes your head gets
a little bit iffy because
you’re nervous.”
Although many audi-
tioned for the group,
only seven were actually accepted. “We’d
like to keep it small so
we can manage it,”
said Hyde.
CCD teachers Gracie Whyte and Merrett
Shah will be running
the group and choreographing the performances the students
will dance.
Students particpating
in Shift joined for different reasons. Senior
Gabby Bauer (CCD)
said, “I thought it’d be
interesting because I
did the Denver trip last
year, so I thought ‘Why
not this one and see
where this goes.’”
Vidrio said she wanted to work specifically
with Gracie Whyte and
the other group members to collaberate and
perform modern dances.
This marks the first time
CCD has had an outof-school performing
group. Shift now joins
the ranks of the other
OCSA performance
groups such as Commercial Dance’s Dot
Comm, Creative Writing’s spoken word team
Yawp, International
Dance’s Las Estrellas,
and Thespian Society’s
Wild Things.
A Night Under the Sun Facebook Fury
Justine Bautista
Staff Writer
The annual Homecoming dance,
themed “A Night Under
the Sun,” was held at
Tortilla Jo’s in Downtown Disney on Saturday, Sept. 26.
For the first dance
of the year, the OCSA
population seemed to
be very excited. Senior Amanda Ponce
(ID) said, “I’m looking
forward to the music
and just the vibe of the
night with everybody
getting dressed up and
having fun together.”
With it being their senior year, the Class of
2016 had high hopes
for this dance in particular. Ponce continued,
“Homecoming has really helped me get together with my friends,
make new friends, and
make connections with
other people.”
The main concern for
this year’s Homecoming dance stemmed
from doubts about the
venue and its accommodations. Peter DePaola IV (CAH) indicated his concerns: “I think
the theme is actually
really good, but I’m not
a fan of the venue.” On
the bright side, OCSA
dances are constantly changing. As DePaola said, “With other
schools, they just do
dances in the gym and
Students on the dance floor
Photo By: OCSA Daily
it gets very hot. We can
go to other places and
if we don’t like it then
we don’t go again.”
Students like Senior
Reid Lemp (CAH)
thought the opposite:
“I liked the place, but
the theme was a little
bland.” His least favorite part of Homecoming was “the line to get
in,” which stretched far
into Downtown Disney.
Homecoming dances are also becoming
increasingly larger. Mr.
Dion said “this dance
had 150 more students attending than
Homecoming 2012.
This means that venues
the size of Tortilla Jo’s
are probably no longer good for us.” In the
future, it seems OCSA
will have to change its
Homecoming plans.
Dion said, “we evaluate them based on
size, cost, amenities,
and potential appeal.
We also have to factor
in the venue’s availability.”
On the other hand,
for freshmen, hopes
were high as Homecoming was their first
high school dance.
Sarah Shepherd (CMD)
said, “with it being my
first high school dance,
I’ve just noticed how
much work goes into
just getting a group
together. But really getting ready for Homecoming has been so
fun!”
Shepherd was “really looking forward
to just having fun with
old friends and new
friends.” Freshman
Tessa Taylor (ACT) “was
surprised that people
were actually dancing.”
Even with the hiccups
and doubts, students
enjoyed themselves
and made lasting
memories.
Anthony Castagna
Staff Writer
At the start of the
year, student administrators of the Class of
2016 Facebook group
locked the page, banning comments for
several days. Two different events led to blocking posts on the page:
the senior class name
and sitting at the senior
wall versus sitting at the
quad.
On Aug. 19 senior
Ruby Pittman (CCD)
posted a design for a
senior class name first
suggested by seniors
Jack Murphy (MT)
and Kendrick Park
(IM) [Jack Murphy is
Co-Editor in Chief of
Evolution]. The design
parodied the “Straight
Outta Compton” movie
poster.
After, Corfield commented on the page
that he thought it
was an offensive act
because he believes
the poster is meant to
educate about the aspects of culture where
poverty and hardships
are too common. He
went on to say “None
of those apply to 90%
of the school.”
Pittman defended
herself, saying “It’s not
offensive. It actually
spreads the message of
the movie, and the stories of people in similar
situations.”
Eventually the arguments cooled down
and the comments
were deleted.
A few weeks later, the
seniors started to talk
about something “different”: Where v