By; Edir Coronado
Union High school was nominated for 12 Paper Mill Rising Star awards and took home the Best Choreography award. Students performed “Step in Time” from this year’s performance of Mary Poppins, chosen by the Paper Mill. Performing the routine at the Paper Mill stage had its challenges, the number is over 5 minutes long and had to be cut down to 3 minutes and 30 seconds.
The piece is a tap dance number, with plenty of intensity and the group worked hard to make sure that none of the passion wavered. For their performance they included 12 dancing sweeps, which included all of their high energy moments with dancers flipping, and a dance off by student Johnathan Develson.
Their success on stage started in early May, when the Union High School performers first heard that they had been nominated for 12 awards. They immediately delved into rehearsal, preparing for the big event 3 times a week for more than two hours at each practice. The students enjoyed the repetition, despite the strenuous work because they wanted to master their craft. They did just that by setting a goal and accomplishing their objective. Their overall achievement as skilled performers started in the beginning of the school year, working hard from the very start.
Jennifer Williams, choreographer, described the event as “Very exciting.” Even though this marks her third win in the last four years and she foresees future awards with the incredible amount of talented students that enter Union High School. “We do get a handful of students who come in with dance training and they are so wonderful, but a majority of them come in with no dance training experience at all,” said Williams. “These students come with a spark and instantly I know we can teach them to become dancers,” explains Williams.
Students like Jonathan Duvelson, who won this year’s Douglas Michael Krueger Scholarship, had no prior dance experience. Douglas Michael Krueger was a young performing arts student from Union who lost his life at a young age. Jonathan winning the award hit home for Williams because Doug and she were close friends and to this day she and Doug’s mother continue to help raise money for the Douglas Michael Krueger Scholarship. This year Jonathan Duvelson was nominated for Best Lead Actor in his performance, he didn’t win, but being nominated and winning the scholarship marked a very special evening.
