Lights, camera, dance.  Manhattan High School has always been well renowned for its stellar drama department.  Now, MHS has another group of talented performers, this time in the form of MHS’s Musical Theatre Dance group.  Founded this fall and run by seniors Ashlyn Gillespie and Anna Washburn, the Musical Theatre Dance group is a branch of the Thespians Club focused on teaching students how to dance.

“Anna and I really love dancing and musical theatre, that’s how our friendship started,” Gillespie said,  “We wanted to share that passion, We wanted to show that dancing is easier and more enjoyable than people think, and to make leaning dancing more accessible.  We both really like choreographing dances so it’s a fun project for us.”

This group is for anyone who wants to learn how to dance or just wants to have some fun dancing.  The group is aiming to educate MHS students on many different kinds of dance and prepare for upcoming showcases.  The club is currently working on a dance number for “Salute to Broadway.”

“Our goal is to assemble a community of people who find joy in movement while giving them an opportunity to perform and work as a group,” Washburn said, “We hope to learn at least one number to perform at Salute to Broadway, teach the basics to different styles of dance [such as] ballet, jazz and tap, and give people the fundamentals of partner dancing to hopefully partner dance without choreography.”

The group currently has around 50 members and counting.  Meetings, consisting of stretching and then reviewing and learning choreography, are every Friday after school in the orchestra room.  Anyone interested in joining the group can talk to Washburn or Gillespie, text “MTDG” to “81010,” or join the group’s Facebook page “MHS Musical Theatre Dance.”

“Their dance club is so much fun,” Grace Franke, junior, said. “Anna and Ashlyn are spectacular teachers, they know exactly what they’re doing and they make stuff that looks really complicated super easy to learn, which is fantastic to me because I’ve never properly danced before.”