‘Dancing Queen’: junior guides students through choreography

Once the junior class officers posted a Quad Day dance choreographer signup sheet on Facebook, junior Caroline Li excitedly clicked on the form link and volunteered to choreograph the all-girls’ dance single-handedly and one of the partner dances with juniors Spring Ma and Mitali Shanbhag.

She soon learned that more than 50 girls signed up to be part of the all-girls’ dance. What she did not realize, however, was how difficult and strenuous the job was going to be.

“As the days drag on and we get closer to Quad Day, I get more anxious about the progress of those who are in the dances,” Li said. “Choreographing just puts a lot of pressure on me.”

Having choreographed and participated in several past Quad Day dances, Li enjoys choreographing, saying it is “nice to create simple and fun dances for [her] class.”

“[Even though] it can be stressful sometimes, it is really cool to see the people in your grade learning, doing and having fun with your choreography and to entertain others who are watching,” Li said.

Li first started dancing at the Pacific Ballet Academy in Mountain View when she was 6. Since then, she has dabbled in other styles such as jazz, hip-hop, contemporary and lyrical.

As of now, Li continues to pursue her passion for dance as an officer of the school dance team and acts as a leader and motivator for the other girls. She also acts as “another set of eyes when it comes to seeing if certain moves or changes work,” SHS dance team coach Kaitlyn Landeza said.

Junior Yuna Kim, who is in the all-girls’ dance, praised Li’s thoughtfulness toward the dancers.

“If you don’t know a certain move, you simply raise your hand, call out her name and just ask for help,” Kim said. “She is always smiling and goes for that extra mile, whether it is changing the choreography or making time for the people who couldn’t come to previous practices.”

For example, Li posted video tutorials on Facebook for those who could not make the rehearsals.

At most practices, however, only half of the dancers  showed up, most of whom either did not have enough time to practice with the tutorials or were not able to execute the difficult choreography correctly, Li said.

“It can be a bit frustrating sometimes, especially when some people don’t listen to you during the practice and you have to raise your voice to get their attention,” Li said. “It’s also hard to choreograph because I don’t know which moves are too hard for them to learn.”

Li also overworked and injured her knee during dance team and Quad Day dance practices. To prevent any further injury on her legs, she bound them with black and pink strips of kinesiology tape. When the girls had to learn the last part of their dance, she taught junior Chih-Hsuan Hsu, another dance team officer, the routine beforehand so that she could help Li lead the practice.

Nevertheless, Li said that the main highlight of Quad Day is seeing the audience enjoying the performances, which makes her realize that all of the time and effort she spent was worthwhile.

“I always hope that the dances will meet or even exceed people’s expectations, and that everyone participating in these dances had a fun time and will want to do it again next year,” Li said.