Walt Whitman HS Dance Program Celebrates 20 Years

SOUTH HUNTINGTON, NY — The Walt Whitman High School Dance Program is celebrating its 20th anniversary, the school district announced.

"It's not common in education these days to find a suburban public high school offering dance classes as part of its regular fine arts curriculum, so this is a remarkable milestone," the school district wrote.

Dancers took to the stage at the Performing Arts Center at Whitman on May 25 for the annual Spring Dance Concert. The theme for this year’s performance was "I’m Fabulous," and it was prominently featured in the first number performed by Whitman dance graduating seniors, along with returning alumni, when they ended the piece by exclaiming "I’m Fabulous!"

Dance teacher Susan Turner Radin said it's part of the ritual she and her dancers have ended every class with for the last 20 years.

Radin, who has led the Whitman program since its inception, said she is just as grateful for the opportunity to teach dance in high school now as she was when she was first hired.

"I have strived to get as many people to dance as possible, to eliminate narrow stereotypes and to challenge students’ abilities, comfort zones, and beliefs about themselves," she said.

Whitman offers students several dance classes each year: Studio in Dance I/II/III and Modern Dance I/II/III. Each level is a full year, one credit course and offers beginner through advanced dance education, choreography and artistry. Students train in ballet and modern dance techniques daily, study the history of dance, and perform in the annual Dance Concert in the spring. Students also attend professional performances.

For Radin, dance is not about flashy costumes or trying to win a mirror ball trophy. It's about expressing an idea, a feeling or a story and sharing it with the world. That philosophy was very much evident in three of the dances on stage at the concert.

"The Divide" was inspired by the severe political polarization in this country. "Everytime you…" was inspired by a Rupi Kaur poem and a lesson Whitman English teacher Kim Latko gave on writing poetry. The dancers wrote poems and they were recited on stage as the performers translated them into choreography. Scantron expressed the anxiety and pressure students feel about testing and how their grades define them.

"I have tried to build a program that develops creative, compassionate, expressive and thoughtful citizens who can collaborate to make art that addresses issues relevant to their lives and explore their own unfathomable potential in the process," Radin said.

Before the performance, five Whitman students were inducted into the National Honor Society for Dance Arts: Fern Brazeau, Kaitlyn Clark, Madeline Franz, Alana Marzigliano and Alexandra Sales.