(What better backdrop for a ‘Grease’ inspired dance production, than Zak’s Diner in Kanata. The Sacred Heart Dance Class students who perform in the 2023 production are: (l-r) Nyla Fyfe, Kayla McDonald, Quincy Dawson, Hailey Smuck, and Lauren Martin. All photos: Kaitlyn LeBoutillier/Stittsville Central)
Milkshakes and the Hand Jive. What’s more 50’s than that? On Wednesday, April 12, Sacred Heart High School’s Dance classes travelled to Zak’s Diner in Kanata to film their video submission for this year’s OCSB School Board Showcase.
In previous years, Sacred Heart hosted the dance showcase in its auditorium. However, over the past few school years, the board-wide showcase has moved online. The dance show hosted by OCSB Arts welcomes submissions from schools all over the district, ages kindergarten to grade 12!
Students from participating schools take time in their dance classes or dance clubs all throughout the semester to choreograph, rehearse and record their showcase dances to submit to the showcase. From there, the OCSB Arts organizes all submissions into a couple of bigger videos so viewers can watch all the performances back to back as if they were at the actual showcase event.
Sacred Heart dance teacher Mrs. Donaghy and her grade 9 and 10 dancers took the time this year to ensure they stood out from the rest of the dance videos. The classes spent a school day at Zak’s Diner in Kanata filming their Grease-inspired dance video. They danced to songs from the musical and had costumes and props, Pink Lady jackets and all!
Dancers got to take a fun day off school to perform at the restaurant and even stopped for a quick lunch break at the diner, of course getting the iconic Zak’s milkshakes. You could call it method acting for the dancers!
Mrs. Donaghy is always looking for fun ways to incorporate dance into people’s everyday lives and putting on a show at the restaurant while they filmed their dance video was certainly a cool way to do that. The dancers put so much thought and hard work into their choreography, rehearsals and filming that there is no doubt the final product will turn out great.
The final showcase video is shared with participating schools first but keep an eye on Mrs. Donaghy’s Twitter (@ChantaleDonaghy) because once the video has been shared, she will be sure to repost it on her account. And we will be sure to retweet it on ours!
Wonderful!