Rose basketball highlights
FRI.| 4-12-24 | ENTERTAINMENT
Issue 1
September 27th, 2019
NCADA spring production returns in person
FRI. | 07-29-22 | NEWS
As the end of May and the beginning of June rolled around, many dance companies in eastern North Carolina hosted their spring productions. One of these studios was the North Carolina Academy of Dance Arts (NCADA), which held their spring production from Saturday, May 21 through Sunday, May 22 at Wright Auditorium. This was the dancers’ first spring production back at Wright Auditorium since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Because of COVID-19, Wright [Auditorium] was not open, so we had to have spring production at Rose,” sophomore dancer Sophia Chiancone said.
Rose was welcoming to the dancers when they were in need of a place to dance last year, but Wright Auditorium gives the dancers a larger stage to dance on, better lighting, more seating for the audiences and more backstage dressing rooms.
“At Wright [Auditorium] you have a huge space to practice, rehearse and perform and there is a lot of seating to watch,” Chiancone said.
Many dancers agree with Chiancone about the benefits of Wright.
“Wright has more lighting and dressing rooms and we have been doing [productions] for a while there, so we are all used to it,”
Photo by by Riley Harris
sophomore dancer Tanuli Gunerathne said.
The production had four acts: Candy Land, Monopoly, Sleeping Beauty and Kaleidoscope. Candy Land and Monopoly showcased younger dancers while Sleeping Beauty and Kaleidoscope showcased the older dancers. Sleeping Beauty was a classical ballet section and Kaleidoscope was a color-themed section with tap, jazz, hip hop and contemporary dances.
“For our class dances, they were in Kaleidoscope which was based on color,” Gunerathne said. “For example our jazz dance was called Pink Cadillac, and we wore pink costumes and it was really fun.”
There are always many people and parts that go into spring productions. For NCADA, the usual costuming, choreographing and prop setting took place, in addition to the added change of being back at Wright Auditorium for spring production for the first time in a while.
“A lot of work went into this production; there were a bunch of moms backstage that had to make sure everyone’s costume fit right, set quick changes, make sure everyone got where they needed to be and make costumes and props,” Chiancone says. “There's also the teachers that had to choreograph everything and plan out where everyone was going to be.”
The week of the production, dancers had to attend rehearsals at Wright Auditorium to prepare the stage and work with lighting and props. Dancers have been preparing their parts and class dances for months, which were assigned after an audition process.
After COVID-19 kept the dancers away from the Wright Auditorium stage for three years, dancers, teachers, parents and the community came together to make this production stand out from others.
“I think everyone wanted to make the production bigger and better than the rest, because we have had this time to think about it and to prepare and finally do something big that we haven't in a long time,” Chiancone said.
