DaVinci Hits Cedar City: Shakespeare Competition 2013
Sixty DaVinci dance, music and theater students travel to Southern Utah University for the 2013 Shakespeare Competition and bring home three placings.
October 7, 2013. Early on Wednesday October 3, sixty of DaVinci’s dance, music, and theater students crowded on to a school bus to go to Southern Utah University for this year’s Shakespeare Competition accompanied by Mr. Slee, Mr. Smith, Mr. Figueira, Mrs. Morris, Dr. Donaldson, and two parents.
The students and chaperones stayed in the Stratford Inn and a Best Western. They were required to pay for their own food and souvenirs while in Cedar City. When they arrived, everybody took their luggage to their rooms and the performers went straight to rehearsal. They had the night they got there and a few hours before their performances to rehearse. Some groups had trouble communicating rehearsal times. “Our minstrel group had some issues confirming the time we were practicing with each other. One person would think we were meeting at twelve while the rest of us thought one,” said Amanda Dortzbach.
“It was great! The schedule was pretty hectic. It was hard to balance out going to the performances you wanted to go to, finding time to rehearse and perform, and then finding time to eat. I wanted to go watch and support everybody, but I couldn’t do it all,” said Dortzbach. “My favorite part was probably being outside of the room the Jr. High Ensemble was performing in and then witnessing them coming out of the room just so elated and proud of themselves.”
Students had a great experience performing in Cedar City and spending time with their friends.
“My favorite part was walking around the campus in our dance costumes. Everyone kept coming up to us and asking us things,” says Portia Davis. “The most memorable part was when we performed and hit our routine perfectly.”
Kaylee Olsen, Meghan Anderson, Samuel Johnson, Kaitlynne Jones, Lane Goddard, and Killian Garcia-Darling won first place in the High School Dance Ensemble for their dance Chaos, based off a scene from William Shakespeare’s Othello; Kaitlynne Jones and Killian Garcia-Darling won first place in the High School Duo Dance category for their Romeo and Juliet dance; and the Junior High took third place in the Ensemble Scene category for their Romeo and Juliet scene.
DaVinci students were unable to stay for the awards ceremony but Mr. Slee stayed behind so he could let students know how they did.
“At first, the bus ride home was kind of upsetting, especially for the choreographers. The reason being, we were unable to attend the awards ceremony due to a lack of space in the gym. But when Slee called me and had me announce the winners, the atmosphere on the bus completely changed! We were all excited, cheering for each other and making plans for the next competition,” said Kaitlynne Jones.
“Once we found out each placing, our energy climbed. Then we all fell asleep shortly after we found out our last placing,” said Amanda Arnold.
