Dance
From the Choreographer’s Mirror
A Year of Growth in Dance...
This was a big year for the performing arts at SASPX. In particular, it was an incredible year for our dancers, who continued to raise the bar on what they can accomplish.
We began the year with the ambitious World Dance Festival-three days of impactful workshops, exceptional collaborations, inspiring performances, and meaningful connections. Our dance troupes participated alongside guests from schools across China and abroad. The festival culminated in our Fall Performance, an event that felt more like block party. It was a moment of pure joy and community.
APAC Dance, NHS Street Dance, and NHS Contemporary enjoyed a year of outstanding performances and growth. APAC Dance presented a beautiful work celebrating the artistry and culture of Chinese dance at the LNY assembly. NHS Street Dance turned a new leaf this year, demonstrating not only passion but also artistic depth and knowledge of their craft.
The NHSDA was active this year, encouraging dancers to hold themselves to a high standard through curiosity about their art form and responsibility to their craft.
In addition to our established troupes, we reintroduced the SAS Cheer Team, creating new opportunities for students to participate in dance while cultivating some Eagle spirit.
A major undertaking for the dance program this year was the beginning of an annual holiday dance production- the first of its kind at SAS. It was a lofty goal: a reimagining of a holiday classic featuring all middle school performers, with high school students assisting in choreography and production.The production showcased the diverse abilities of our dancers and was a tremendous success.
Our dance curriculum continued to expand, providing students in Grades 6–12 ( including IB Dance), with opportunities to develop as performers, creators, and leaders. We concluded the year with Passion and our End of Year Composition presentations, where students made some of their best work by embracing experimentation and artistic risk-taking.
The most memorable moments were often the personal breakthroughs: a student being inspired by a performance, dancers challenging stereotypes, a middle school student having a breakthrough in class, a Dance II student discovering their creative voice through a dance film. These moments of growth remind us that the true success of a dance program lies not only in what students achieve, but what they discover about themselves along the way.
Ms. Anneliese Charek, Dance Teacher, MS & HS & APAC Dance
PASSION VOLUME XIX
The Passion Dance Production is an annual performance brought to life by National Honor Society of Dance Arts (NHSDA). Dancers in high school come together and pour their souls into every movement, creating symbolic pieces based on a theme that changes every production. All dancers are required to audition by presenting at least half of their completed choreography. Those who are selected through this process will earn a spot in the final performance lineup.
For the ‘25-’26 school year, the theme for Passion Volume XIX is reverie. Reverie is the state of having pleasant dream-like thoughts. Following the theme, our talented dancers have created storylines and convey emotions through their pieces, regardless of dance style. We are extremely proud of how much effort our dancers put in this year, and we can’t wait to see what comes next year!
Student Spotlights
Lilia C. ‘26
Long to Belong
Passion XIX: Reverie
Rachel C. ‘26
Why Can’t You Know?
Passion XIX: Reverie
World Dance Festival
Hosted by SASPX, this was the first year of the World Dance Festival, which invited dancers from SASPD, WAB, ISB, NIDO, AISG and Wellington College. It was created with the intention of offering a peak into the dance scene in China and the multiculturalism of Shanghai. With a rich history of classical and minority dance, China has also developed their unique interpretations of Contemporary Dance and Street Dance. Some of these styles of dance originated in other parts of the world and in small communities, they can still reach young dancers from another part of the world and connect to the creativity and freedom of these dance genres. We reached out to schools in our international school community, and to schools that we know have a connection to dance.
On Friday, the work created at the festival was showcased by performances from the incredibly talented SASPX dance community, MS dance classes and our exceptional dance troupes; APAC Dance and NHS Street Dance. Our school produces a high number of skilled, creative and multi-faceted dancers. Ms. Anneliese notes that she is so happy that they get to display their talents every Fall in this showcase, especially because it was early on in the school year and so many students had already created pieces and learned choreography.
The performance was comprised of choreography created by students, group pieces learned in only a matter of weeks in MS dance classes, and fusion group pieces created in a day. The fusion groups performances are created through a collaboration of students from all the participating international schools during the festival. SASPX and the guest schools are put into four groups where they are not allowed to plan anything in advance. Over the course of a day, they need to draw on their training, collaborative skills and creative problem solving to make a short piece of choreography, and then had to be performed the next day. Although the time constraints are intense, the pieces are always amazing, showing what is possible when people sharing the same passion come together.
