Seniors go back to back to win Spirit Week dance for second straight year

An exciting night of school spirit ended with yet another victory for the Class of 2016, as the seniors won their second straight Spirit Week Dance Competition. In a more surprising result, the sophomores upset the juniors to take second place, while the freshman class placed last.

Before the dance, freshman class dance choreographer Mandi Karpo (’19) spoke on the team’s dance and her expectations.

“[We’ve used] a lot of simple, basic movements so that everyone’s able to catch on,” Karpo said. “We’re freshmen, so we’re just gonna try our best.”

The freshman dance, based on their class theme as the News app, began as the freshmen posed with many newspapers like Eastside before the squad of nearly 70 started dancing. They incorporated songs like “Crazy Train” by Ozzy Osbourne, “Smooth Criminal” by Michael Jackson, “Billionaire” by Bruno Mars, and “New York, New York” by Frank Sinatra.

The dance’s loose story line was based around the Channel 4 News team from the critically acclaimed comedy Anchorman (2004). The class had one freshman breakdance as the rest looked on before they rushed the center at the end.

Spirit Week Dance 2015: Sophomores (Weather App) — Second Place

Video by Madeline Bowne (’16) / Video Editor, Juliet Bender (’16) / Videographer, and Atira Nair (’16) / Videographer Edited by Madeline Bowne (’16) / Video Editor Cherry Hill East High School – Eastside – https://eastside-online.org

For the sophomores, choreographer Maddy Vogel (’18) said that she was simply “hoping to not come in fourth like last year”; the class more than met those expectations, as they placed second. The sophomores incorporated their theme as the Weather App using songs like “Walking on Sunshine” by Katrina & The Waves, “Here Comes the Sun” by The Beatles, “Ice Ice Baby” by Vanilla Ice, “Raining Men” by The Weather Girls, and more.

The sophomore dance was quite impressive. From their snowflake formation at the beginning, to a weather forecast projected from the speakers, to their dance moves using actual umbrellas during the song “Umbrella” by Rihanna, the group of over 70 sophomores danced confidently and appeared to be completely in unison. Their usage of the “Thunder Buddy” jingle from the movie Ted (2012) was a notably comedic moment. The culminating moment occurred when one sophomore boy landed a split that sent a wave of sophomore guys backwards.

Spirit Week Dance 2015: Freshmen (Newsstand App) — Fourth Place

Video by Madeline Bowne (’16) / Video Editor, Juliet Bender (’16) / Videographer, and Atira Nair (’16) / Videographer Edited by Madeline Bowne (’16) / Video Editor Cherry Hill East High School – Eastside – https://eastside-online.org

Next, the junior dance was based on the class theme as the Clock app. The class used songs such as “Countdown” and “End of Time” by Beyonce, “Tik Tok” by Ke$ha, “4 Minutes” by Madonna, and “Time of My Life” by the Black Eyes Peas. Choreographer Tobi Friedman (’17) detailed how she and other choreographers made the dance unique through various technical moves.

“We’ve incorporated a lot of canons, ripples, stuff like that where we go in different directions, but then a lot of it’s also simple, so it’s really clean and together,” Friedman said.

The junior dance included close to 50 people. The most impressive moments included a moving clock formation at the center of the floor and a group of five breakdancing juniors breaking it down toward the end of the dance. A less successful move occurred when the boys, led by Jake Cerota (’17), all twerked together, a move that the judges appeared to dislike. Still, the class clamored to the center behind a poster that read “What a time to be alive,” referencing the recent album of the same name by rap icons Drake & Future.

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Finally, the seniors, led by four-year choreographers Emily Mosgowsky (’16) and Charlotte Montgomery (’16), created a dance with over 100 people revolving around their theme of the Map app. They used songs like “I’m the Map” from the children’s’ TV show Dora, “Route 66” by Nat King Cole, and a remix to the “Little Einsteins Theme Song” by 886Beatz.

“We have done a lot of moves incorporating cars, the traveling aspect, but then also the adventure aspect. A lot of our moves are cultural revolving around the places we go, which is really cool,” Mosgowsky said. “We’re seniors, which is significant considering we’re about to start our lives and go to different places.”

The class of 2016, having won last year, entered the dance with an incomparable sense of confidence in their own abilities. To them, anything but a win would have been a disappointment.

“We’re expecting everyone to leave everything they have on that basketball court. We’re treating it like it’s only our stage. It’s our night,” Montgomery said.

To begin the dance, the seniors assembled themselves in a formation resembling a map and had one senior imitate an arrow navigating the route like on a GPS. Later, the group danced around class president Lee Rosen-Swell (’16) as he rode in circles on a Hoverboard. The guy-only dance was especially innovative as groups of four guys each were able to mimic riding a motor cycle using themselves as the motorcycle’s parts. After Class of 2016 Adviser Mr. Greg Gagliardi leapt onto the floor to perform his signature breakdance moves, the class went into the stands and danced at a slower pace to “We are the World” by the USA for Africa group while throwing streamers across the crowd to finish the performance.

After a brief celebration by the victorious seniors, many seniors were overcome with not only excitement, but a more bittersweet sense of sadness that their final spirit week dance had just ended.

“This is my favorite part of high school,” Montgomery said. “I love doing this more than any activity that I’m involved in. I’m sad to see it end, but it’s been a great ride.”

Still, the Class of 2016 was proud, more than anything, of the victory.

“I’m so proud of my grade, every single person who participated… I’m so proud of Charlotte. We’ve choreographed every dance since freshman year, and now we ended it with a two-peat,” Mosgowsky said. “It doesn’t get much better than that.”