The Come up of Contemporary

A new contemporary dance team, officially formed on Nov. 2, was recently added to Peninsula’s dance department and is coached by Loretta Tsudama, who is also the head coach of Coed Choreo, Choreo Company, Song and the dance physical education program. Contemporary is a lyrical, jazz-based dance form that does not have very strict technique. When students first approached Tsudama with the idea of creating a contemporary dance team, she agreed and told them to find at least five people willing to join. When they did, Tsudama took on the challenge and started working on logistics for the team such as tryouts.

Since the team is newly created, a huge focus was placed on getting the word out. The long-awaited tryout information was posted on the Peninsula dance Instagram page, @pvphschoreodance, and the bulletin, inviting all interested students to try out. Teams like Choreo Company have predetermined groups with similar styles that always audition together, but tryouts were opened to all the dancers in the dance department. As a result, each team member’s dance foundation is vastly different from the next, making this new team extremely unique and versatile. Senior Venus Wong is one of the members on the team and has been dancing on the Song and Coed Choreo teams since her freshman year as well.

  “This dance team is smaller [than other teams on campus] since there are only seven people [on] it,” Wong said. “Even though we have not had many rehearsals yet, everyone seems to get along. So far, it has been a really fun experience. I am excited for where this team will be in the next few years.” 

While the team has started practicing the first half of their choreography with renowned dance teacher Kimmy Matich, a concrete practice schedule has not been established and practices are held when the majority of team members can make it. Formal practices will begin in late January since competition season begins in early March. By showing up to practice and putting in hard work, the dancers hope to learn how to move with and trust each other. For some dancers, this team may be the first competitive team they have been on, which makes perfecting the routine an even larger goal to work towards.  Since this is the first year of the Contemporary dance team, Tsudama does not know what to expect.

  “This is our first year so we do not know how this is going to play out. I do not want it to be stressful; I want it to be fun,” Tsudama said. “At the end of the day I want the dancers to create good memories. If they like [what we do] and they want to place higher, then they are going to have to work and train harder.”

Since all of the dance teams are run by Tsudama, they will all compete in the same competitions. The team’s first competition is on Feb. 3 at the West Coast Elite Dance Regionals, a competition Coed Choreo will also be attending. By competing together, students can feel like they are a part of the dance department as a whole while also having their own unique, expressive dance styles. Their mutual support of each other helps them become even better dancers both individually and as a collective. A member of both the Contemporary team and Choreo Company, junior Tilliana Wakefield-Carl, wants the team to expand and benefit from attending competitions. 

“Having a place where we can display our dances and really put in the hard work knowing that we are going to reach a competition [will help encourage us],” Wakefield-Carl said. “I hope this [team] continues [to grow]  and I hope [more] dancers will [become] interested in this team and have [the] passion to display their skills.”