On April 27, the Wildcat Dancer Dance Team and the RPB Dancers gave the performance of their lives in the Royal Palm Beach High School auditorium, led by Dance Director Michele Blecher.
This year’s theme, “Strength in Diversity: Dancing Throughout the World,” was Blecher’s continued effort to teach and show respect for cultural diversity and acceptance of all races, creeds, religions and sexual preference. The show showcased various top music chart songs from around the world. The 24 dance routines were from Africa, Israel, Haiti, Germany, Cuba, France, China, Japan and Jamaica, just to name a few countries.
The spring dance performance not only highlighted each dance class in Blecher’s department, but also graduating seniors. This year also highlighted Gwynne Eldridge, Blecher’s longtime stage manager and master AVID teacher, who is retiring this June.
Each senior soloist/duet performance showcased what the students had learned in their years of training with Blecher. Many of the senior dancers will be attending various universities majoring from sports medicine, various medical fields, business and dance, with many of them earning partial and full scholarships.
Blecher always enforces to her dancers that they dance to counts, not the beat of the music. This rule hit home when Blecher’s Dance Technique IV class was performing on the stage and their music stopped. The dancers continued to dance without missing a count and were awarded a standing ovation. The grand finale, One World, had all of the dancers dancing throughout the audience and the audience clapping and dancing themselves. Blecher’s then honored each of her graduating Honor Dance students.
ABOVE: The Wildcat Dancer Dance Team and the RPB Dancers.
