MBHS Holds Annual Dance Beyond Convention
From San Luis Obispo to Santa Barbara Counties, many teen dancers come to the Dance Beyond Convention to connect and learn from professional dancers. MBHS has been hosting this convention for the last four years for teen dancers, preferably from schools around the Central Coast. This convention gives teens the opportunity to learn new skills they wouldn’t normally be able to learn in local studios.
“It’s a one day event where dancers could pick two out of the three types of classes that are offered. The first part of the day we did introductions and then held a raffle. Then, the students had the choice of picking either a contemporary class, lyrical class, or hip hop class,” said Elena Smith, the coach of Dance Fusion.
These three classes also included two levels. Lyrical, contemporary, and hip hop range from beginning and intermediate to intermediate and advanced. This depends on what type of level teens are as a dancer. Each workshop has a choreographer who teaches the group a routine they will later showcase in front of the rest. This is mainly meant for teens to share a commonality of the art of dance, and show expression through their skills and motions. After the last class, all the dancers meet in the MBHS big gym and perform routines they learned. Schools perform their own routines as well. Dance is not something easy to master, and can be physically difficult. Teen dancers work hard on their skills and routines to eventually perfect them. Dance is a form of art, but dancers too are athletic, so the two components bring athletic ability and art together and form into one.
“It was taking the ability to take a dance class from professionals in the community. There were ones from Cal Poly, Allan Hancock, and from Klein Dance studio,” said Smith.
The convention is really neat for teen dancers who want to pursue dance, and gives them the opportunity to not only learn new things, but to meet professionals and be inspired. Dancers are able to connect with other teen dancers from along the Central Coast, perform routines together, and take classes together.