By Luke Berninger ‘19

This year’s school musical is the classic West Side Story, a favorite for many theater lovers. The show has greatly influenced our culture and is a staple for classic performing arts inspiring many more projects after its creation. There has been a lot of versions of this show many being major successes making it a memorable experience for so many people. Most people have there own interpretation of the show but it can change every time you see it; that’s why it’s important that the schools show to send a great message.  The musical is very moving with its tones of tolerance, accepting and understanding. It’s connected with many of today’s issues and problems making it an excellent choice for the school’s musical this year. Not only will it affect the people watching but the people who are performing will learn too.
To properly portray the broadway show, there needs to be an abundance of male dancers. This year, there is a great opportunity to learn the art of dance with the free dance lessons provided at St. Joe’s on Tuesdays.  So far there has been a great turnout of students interested to be a part of this fantastic occasion. It ranges from guys who regularly do the theater events to football players and there has been some great dancing talent.  “In the three weeks the class has already learned a great deal,” said Bill Fitzpatrick ‘18. “The kids involved are ready to learn, have fun doing it, and because it’s only an hour it doesn’t take time away from homework or other school activities. These classes are helpful especially if you are just starting to get into the performing arts. We have all types of dancers from professional o people who are just starting so no prior experience is required.”
The challenge of the class is the accuracy of the original choreography by Jerome Robbins. He took great care into capturing the characters emotions and translating them into dance creating a masterful story with hundreds of overlapping conflicts within each character. This created a dynamic and strong message within each step the character took. The dancing is the most memorable part of West Side Story so getting the guys who could pull it off is what this class is for.
Tammy Colucci, the choreographer of the school shows and the instructor of the dance lessons, has made the decision to add in most of the original choreography, making it a challenge to get down the steps. 
“The dancing in West Side Story is iconic, especially the men’s movement,” said Colucci. “The gangs, the Jets vs. Sharks, use synchronized movement against one another.  Ballet is used to capture the romanticism between Tony and Maria, The choreography helps us understand the cultural differences and moments of action.”  

So not only does dance show us moments of conflict but it also shows moments of connection and compassion. Using dance to convey a message takes time and dedication and even if you were thinking about doing performing arts just try one of the classes and see how you think of it. With the fantastic talent we already have in the theater program it would be great to find even more within the school.