Middle School Students Provide Creative Showcase

Middle School students enrolled in the Creative Movement class performed a showcase for their peers in the Berry Performing Arts Center last week. This course is an introduction to ballet and creative movement designed and taught by Rutgers Community Arts faculty member, Ms. Peggy Petteway, an accomplished professional who has danced principal roles in a wide range of classical and contemporary ballets with Bay Ballet Theatre, Southern Ballet Theatre, North Carolina Dance Theatre, Chautauqua Dance Company, and Pennsylvania Ballet. 

Students in the class build a strong technical and artistic foundation by focusing on alignment, placement, balance, flexibility, musicality, and strength through age-appropriate progressions.  Students work carefully on the fundamentals of alignment and the muscular development needed to advance into further study of dance. This class is suitable for girls and boys and does not require prior movement or dance experience. 

After Ms. Petteway provided an introduction and history of ballet, she introduced the dancers, who performed a warmup routine and a choreographed number to the opera Coppelia. Student performers were Lily Li ’27, Aphrodite Deng ’28, Olivia Taylor ’27, Debra Adetola ’26, Anisa Sidhu ’27, Sarah Kornfeld ’27, Saadia St. Victor ’27, Arshi Goel ’28, Aanya Rangavajjula ’28 and Shweta Saravanan ’28. 

The students will continue working toward a spring performance that will be presented on May 27 before the Middle School audience.