By Claire Hong
The Advanced Dance I and II classes attended master classes on April 13 taught by dancers from the Barak Marshall Dance Theatre.
The third period Advanced Dance I class had Andrew Cowan as its instructor, while the eighth period was taught by Hai Cohen.
Both instructors performed at the University of California, Los Angeles with the Barak Marshall Dance Theatre April 15 and taught the dance students choreography from their own performance.
“Master classes are always great,” dance teacher Katherine Lowry said. “This one, however, was particularly exciting because that company was actually performing, so it was a good way to get [the students] excited about professional dancers and get out into the dance world.”
The master classes were also completely left to the two instructors to decide what aspects of dancing to teach the Advanced Dance classes.
“A valuable lesson [Cowan] taught us was to always relate the subject of the choreography to something in your life because that makes it more meaningful, and it looks like you have a purpose while youâre dancing,” said Mikaila Mitchell â13, who is part of the third period class.
The Barak Marshall Dance Theatre also had instructors teach during the last summer intensive workshop, so many students had the opportunity to incorporate what they learned during the master classes with the dance techniques they learned over the summer.
“It was similar to that experience, but both experiences were really fun and amazing,” said Hannah Zipperman â12.
“Everything was taught so quickly so we had to be really focused to pick everything up, but the specific style we were taught was so unique and interesting, she said, I donât know where I would have learned that style anywhere else.”
