In the past, the annual recital of the Coast Academy of Dance (CAD) could last for many hours - not a surprise from a school that fields some 300 students. This year, the recital was divided into two shows, to reduce its length. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang on June 7 and 8 featured the younger students, and a second complete show, Broadway, ran June 14 and 15 at Chatelech Theatre.
CAD's artistic director Julie Izad said the two-show system worked well, and the young dancers had a number of guest artists appearing with them to make the program more varied.
Broadway was a fast-paced showcase for the school's teens and mature dancers and opened to full houses.
Highlights included the teen and adult tap classes that have progressed remarkably in style and confidence over the past few years. Singing in the Rain, a collage of teen and senior hip hop and advanced tap classes, worked together well - the hip hoppers danced a fractured version of the movie classic, then the advanced tappers gave a rendition of an old standard, Good Morning. For those in the audience who had long passed their teen years, it was great to see the mature adult class in action, proving hip hop is not only for the young.
Other highlights included a solo Irish dance from Tara MacLeod and an all too short solo from Christina Fitchett, a pre-professional program graduate who has returned after her training in Vancouver to take up teaching next year at CAD. The teen acrobatics students were also a hit, performing as characters from the musical Cats.
The show was light on story-telling, interpretative dance, and heavy on the high energy ensemble numbers. One of the hallmarks of a good CAD show is the ability to assemble large groups of students from up to three dance disciplines on one stage at one time and make the overall effect flow. Take, for example, the dance piece Oliver, with choreography by Erika Wrightman: the teen jazz class opened the dance and performed along with the advanced tap students and the Grade 5 tappers to make a hectic finale to the first half. It could have been musical chaos, but somehow it moved energetically to a dazzling conclusion.
Other highlights included a teen contemporary piece, Just a Jest, with choreography by Sylvain Brochu. Later in the show, Brochu performed one of his own numbers, Tea Time, a delightful character interpretation, with dancer Shelley Elston. The show closed with a selection from Fame, in which the advanced modern dance students had a chance to demonstrate the technique that will take them to the next pre-professional step.
The CAD continues with two summer dance camps starting July 21 and 28, then returns to regular classes in September.
