One, two, three, let’s dance! 

After several years of inactivity, Musical Theatre Dance Group is back this year and has grown thanks to leadership by seniors Ari Hornbeck, Sophia Evangeledis and Mollie Swistek. 

The idea of bringing the club back was brought up by many students across the high school. Evangeledis has been the main leader, who takes students through a few warm-ups, and then they teach dance routines anyone can learn. Swistek has been a member of MTDG since last school year, as Sophia Evangeledis’ assistant. 

“So whenever Sophia is out for a week, Ari Hornbeck and I step in for her,” Swistek said.

Swistek was extremely grateful for the reorganization.

“We mostly focus on songs from musicals. But we warm up to pop songs from the 2000s,” Swistek said. “And we do move pretty slowly because we have beginners and we have advanced dancers and so we go slow enough that anyone can get caught up.” 

Junior Ayana Jones joined MTDG at the start of this school year and has enjoyed being in the group ever since. Her favorite part of MTDG has been dancing to “Hot and Cold” by Katy Perry. Jones chose to join the group because she really liked the people in it. Joining afterschool dance club is a great way to make friends and bond with the dance community of Manhattan.

“It was a good place for us to just go and dance and let loose after a long day,” Jones said. 

Jones has been a member of MTDG since the start of this school year. Of all the dance routines taught in the club, her favorite routine is “Zero to Hero” from Hercules. 

“We love having a bunch of new people or having a lot of new people all the time and it’s really enjoyable and we’d love for people to come and show up,” Jones said. 

Junior Jadon Dunham joined MTDG with Jones at the start of the school year. Dunham joined the club because he wanted to spend time with friends and dance together. Dunham does not dance outside of high school but dances in school because it’s an opportunity to try something new. Students can choose which songs they want to warm up to, while the club leaders work on routines for certain songs. Dunham recommends joining MTDG.

“You don’t have to be a dancer,” Dunham said. “We work on doing one dance at a time. It’s a new dance each wee.,” 

Dunham says there currently aren’t many members in the club. Students are invited to try it out no matter their background in dance. The group meets at 3:30 p.m. in the Drama room, E-130.

“We need more people and it’d be a lot more fun if more people could join,” Dunham said.