BY FALYN KELLEY & ANA PIROSCA
On Thursday, October 20th, Dancing with the Teachers made their 2nd annual debut, here in the Jenkins auditorium at Malden High School.
Students and parents lined up to watch their favorite teachers dance along to popular songs, and help raise money for the class of 2018. Nothing is better than to watch teachers and students rock out to artists like Justin Bieber, Michael Jackson, and Fall Out Boy.
Last year, being the first year the students have approached Dancing with the Teachers, had set the standard high for this year’s show. Math teacher Christopher Giordano along with his students had won first place against the many other groups that year. This year, it was up to him and his group to “defend the crown from last year”.
MHS Science teacher Katherine Haskell, having been in charge of the show since its birth was relieved that this year more people knew about it, however the fun hasn’t wavered since the beginning. “This year it’s been a bit easier since people have at least heard about it, but it’s been really fun doing it.” Haskell participated in the show as well. Three days before the show she stated that she feels confident about her dance, and about other groups’ dances.
Many of the groups before the show were nervous. “We’re mentally ready, but not physically ready, because we say ‘we’re gonna do this,’ but we always mess up on our dance,” says Renet Chan, who danced with Lombardi. Many of the groups spent up to 6 hours a week rehearsing. Chan’s group, made up of cross country team members, had to balance practice and rehearsals, as many other students had to balance their sports, and academics, with the dance.
Backstage, groups were doing last minute rehearsals, make up checks, and preparing themselves mentally for the show. English teacher Sean Walsh, along with the Play Production lightened the mood by singing along to fun songs, and dancing. Some other groups were sitting patiently, and others laughing off any nervousness.
English teacher Brian Wong, who is new to the MHS staff this year, was restless, but he thinks that with the amount of practice they’ve had, that they will do alright.
“[His] group is doing it mostly for fun, but it would be cool if [they] could win- but [they are] not expecting it, so if it happens, it happens, but if not [they are] still going to have fun,” Wong said
As he is a new teacher, this is his first interaction with students outside of the classroom. “It is kind of an entrance” he stated.
Once all the groups had performed, it was time to cast the vote on who would win Dancing with the Teachers 2016. All the groups went up on stage, and waited. Considering how well the dance was put together and replicated, Wong’s group stole the crown from last year’s winner, Giordano. Wong stated that he was very happy with the outcome, and he’s very proud of Emily Chau, Chon Huynh, Selina Zeng, and Sally Zhang, for working so hard to earn the win.
Giordano says he was very disappointed for not winning again. He was “very impressed at how everybody really stepped it up. Very proud of my team, but, still, Mr. Wong came and really brought his A-game” adding that he will be dancing next year to get the crown again.
Sophomore Jason Chan went along with his friends and thought that it was “an interesting experience.” He expressed a strong liking to Wong’s act because he knew the song and “the dance moves were actually pretty accurate. I compared [the music video] to the dance that he was doing, and it was pretty accurate.” He also considers doing it next year for the class of 2019. Next year he hopes to see people step up their game, and come up with newer, more complicated dances.
Many of the students were able to see teachers outside of the classroom, in a more relaxed, friendly way. “Since we were partnered up with [Mr. Lombardi], it gave us an advantage of getting closer to him than other students,” says Chan.
Senior Shannon Hannafin stated that “it was pretty interesting, because [she] didn’t know that those teachers had moves. [She] thought it was going to be embarrassing but it was actually really cool.” Dancing with the Teachers allowed students to get to know different teachers past the normal academia.
The event was considered a success, with laughter and happy faces, almost everyone had a great time watching all of their favorite teachers dance along with their classmates. The crowd was filled with enthusiastic cheers and positive attitudes.
