Warm Up With Some DANCE SOUP At Lehigh Valley Charter High School For The Arts

The Lehigh Valley Charter High School for the Arts (Charter Arts) will present its annual Dance Soup concert virtually this year. This much-anticipated annual concert of student-choreographed works will be taking place on November 19-21, 2020, at 7 PM.

This stunning concert has always attracted a big crowd. Even in a virtual environment, students and faculty worked together to create an exciting event. The concert will feature more than 65 students performing in 24 solos and 11 ensemble pieces. While the solo pieces were filmed in the school's theatre, the ensemble pieces pushed the student choreographers' creativity to the next level as they found innovative ways to create the work through virtual recordings and editing.

The concert is directed by dance faculty member, Jennifer Weaver. "The audience will have the pleasure of viewing many genres of dance with wide-ranging music selections and themes that will keep them fully engaged," says Weaver. "Students have spent a great deal of time developing the concepts for their pieces and exploring the process of creating dance in a virtual environment."

Weaver adds, "I am so impressed with our students as they took a difficult situation and embraced it. The seniors created their "current event"- themed solos at home and managed to translate them to our main stage like true professionals. The choreographers of the ensemble pieces instructed each dancer on how to film their part individually. They used various editing techniques to put them all together into a "dance on camera" group piece. The students have been so creative in finding unique venues and imaginative approaches to film their pieces in order to bring their concepts to life in our virtual show. The end result is extraordinary and audiences will be in awe of their innovation!"

Dance Soup provides students with the opportunity to practice the skills they learn in Improvisation and Dance Composition classes. Many students begin developing their concepts in the summer prior to school starting in September. Through a lengthy process involving faculty acceptance of a student proposal which is due at the start of the school year, the auditioning of fellow classmates, setting rehearsal schedules, creation of a work, and attending mentoring sessions with faculty members, the students sharpen their leadership and choreographic skills.

When asked why the name, Dance Soup?, Weaver explains, "Just like soup is made from many varied ingredients, so is this concert; and those ingredients come together beautifully to make a complete and diverse show."

Tickets for the virtual show are $6-$11. Tickets can be purchased by accessing the school's ticket line, located at www.CharterArts.org .

ABOUT THE LEHIGH VALLEY CHARTER HIGH SCHOOL FOR THE ARTS (Charter Arts):

Charter Arts, opened in 2003, is an audition-based public charter school that provides a comprehensive curriculum for high school students, grades 9-12, who have a passion for the arts. Students major in one of seven artistic areas: dance, instrumental music, literary arts, production arts, theatre, visual arts, or vocal music.

Charter Arts' rigorous curriculum fosters both academic and artistic excellence for its students. The school's impressive Future Ready PA Index ranking, Advanced Placement (AP) exam statistics, Keystone Exam statistics, SAT scores, prestigious artistic accolades, and graduation rate, are testaments to the outstanding education that Charter Arts provides.

Charter Arts is proud to celebrate its seventeenth year as one of the most respected high schools for the arts in the nation. Charter Arts was one of only 349 schools in the nation to be named a 2018 National Blue Ribbon School of Excellence by the U.S. Department of Education. In 2020, the school earned the Title I Distinguished School designation for the fourth year in a row, placing it in the top 5 % of all Title I high schools in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Recently, Charter Arts was ranked as #1 Best Public High School Teachers in PA (out of 666) and #1 Best Charter High School in Pennsylvania on Niche's 2021 Best Schools in America Rankings.

Charter Arts is located at 321 East 3rd Street, Bethlehem PA 18015.

For more information, visit www.CharterArts.org.

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