Written By: Makayla Wolins

The winter choreography showcase took place on November 19th and consisted of dance pieces choreographed by RCDS students. The dances exhibited creativity, perseverance, and expression. Performers and audiences alike enjoyed the show.

Mr. Fearon, the new Middle and Upper School Dance Teacher, is thrilled for a great year of dance. He really enjoyed getting to know the Cedar Street Dance Company dancers by working with and choreographing with them. Understanding the company as a whole unit together for the first time was a fascinating experience that he cannot wait to do again. For him, the most difficult part about choreographing was transferring the original piece on stage, which takes a lot of time and patience because many times the dance needs to be adjusted to Rye Country Day’s theatre dimensions. Mr. Fearon was inspired after hearing “All For Us,” the music immediately drew him in and inspired him to choreograph to it. He said, “I wanted to leave the audience feeling uplifted because ‘All For Us’ is a happy dance in a way that’s not typical. I wanted the audience to have a joyful feeling through power.” He felt so incredibly proud of all of the Cedar Street dancers after watching them perform not only the group dance, but also their own self-choreographed pieces. Since it was his first show with RCDS, it was amazing watching all of the students’ hard work come together in a way where everyone felt like they were supporting each other throughout the show. Mr. Fearon loved choreographing and putting together the winter choreography showcase, and is very excited for the spring show.

Xindi Liu ‘26 is now in her fourth and final year of Cedar Street Dance. Her solo, “String Lights,” was inspired by the song after hearing it in the show Arcane. She feels that her piece “fits where I am right now at this point in my life”. She loved being able to execute a vision of a story, as well as telling her narrative through movement. Liu performed her solo with a candle prop—although it was difficult to manage at first, she eventually worked with it and used it intentionally throughout her piece. She also felt pressure to perform as well as she could because she put emotional weight on the piece. Liu thoroughly enjoyed learning choreography with Mr. Fearon, especially because he is the new dance teacher and she found it interesting to know his choreography style and the way he interprets music. It felt rewarding to perform her own piece and get her story out into the world and enjoyed having other people see the world through her perspective. Liu would like to remind others that Cedar Street will be performing again in the spring, and that she will be performing her solo again.

Nina Kietlinski ‘29, performed a solo titled “Electric Love,” a duet with Liana Visentin ‘29 titled “Alley Rose,” and the Cedar Street group piece. She enjoyed choreographing her solo because it was a nice release after many dance classes where she had time to herself with a flow of creativity. Her duet was fun to choreograph because she got to work with Visentin for the first time, which was a very new, enjoyable experience. She struggled with making her solo “challenging but not too challenging” and “exciting, but not too exciting that I forget the next move.” She was inspired by both “Electric Love” and “Alley Rose” after hearing them and feeling inspired to dance to them. Learning the group piece with other members of Cedar Street was a long but fun process. Kietlinski said it was interesting to perform pieces that are very personal in front of others. She would like to encourage everybody who is interested to choreograph pieces for the next winter choreography showcase.

Bianca Gupta ‘29 performed in the group piece. She thought it was very interesting to see the piece come together—from the early stages of learning all the way to the final dress rehearsal. She thought it was cool to see lighting and costumes elements added along to the piece. A lot of hard work went into the group dance. It was rehearsed every Tuesday and Thursday towards the end of class and rehearsal time as well as at the Open House. It was very nice for her to perform for a smaller audience that were very interested in the pieces being performed. Gupta thought the audience was great and found it very fun to perform in front of them. Audrey Demong ‘29, although not a dancer, was an engaged audience member. She said “It was beautiful to see people I know from the classroom setting be in their element and express themselves through dance.”