Photo by Amy Cherry Advanced ballet dancers from April’s School of Dance are among the many students featured in this year’s annual recital, “Gimme a Prop”, taking place tonight and Saturday at St. Marys Area High School.

“It takes an athlete to dance, but an artist to be a dancer,”  ~Shanna LaFleur

By Amy Cherry

Staff Writer

Glittery props from baseball bats, watering cans, musical notes, plastic instruments, hats, yoga balls and many, many more are all part of the April’s School of Dance annual recital entitled “Gimme a Prop.”

Two-hundred dancers will take to the stage tonight and Saturday at St. Marys Area High School with showtime set for 7 p.m. with doors opening at 6 p.m.

Dancers of all ages from 4-18 have been practicing since September on a myriad of dance routines ranging from tap, jazz, ballet, lyrical, pointe and acrobatic.

“In planning this year’s show, the prop came first then we built the songs around them,” said April Cush, owner and director of April’s School of Dance. “Every song has a prop. It’s something to enhance the dance.”

Dancers and their families began working on props and backdrops, including a replica 1957 Bel Aire car and pirate ship, on Easter weekend completing the project on Memorial Day weekend.

With nearly 50 performances, the audience is sure to be amused by the tiniest dancers - dressed as clowns and detectives - awed by the flexibility of the acrobatic performers and mesmerized by the dancers grace and skill.

Throughout the year Cush is assisted with several student teachers including Brandi Salter, Hannah Timm, Tricia Miller, Stacey Wickett, Madelyn O’Leary, Taryn Pontious, Emily Agosti, Jada Paladino and Jody Miller.

Students teachers choreographed a special dance of their own while six senior students will each perform a solo of their choosing.

Senior solos include those by Brandi Salter of St. Marys, Elyssa Kucenski of Ridgway, Whitly Breakey of Johnsonburg, Frances Wolfe of Kane, Trisha Miller of St. Marys and Cassie Roth of St. Marys.

In addition Hannah Timm is singing a duet with her parents “Thank You for the Music.” Timm is foregoing her senior year at SMAHS to enter college a year early.

Rehearsals at SMAHS began on Monday and continued through the week with a final dress rehearsal on Thursday night.

Each year Thursday’s dress rehearsal proves to be organized chaos as final lighting and prop adjustments are made, dancers stage positioning is tweaked, professional photos and video services are setup in the cafeteria, which often times is the hub of activity.

Behind the scenes dancers warm-up and stretch between numbers as they scurry to change costumes and fix hair and makeup in every nook and cranny both backstage and inside nearby classrooms.

Tickets for the performances are available at the door in limited quantity.