Once again, ISB’s phenomenal dance team takes off to International School of Manila for the 2016 Dance Exchange. Every year, dance students participate in workshops that are run by various professional dancers to learn and enhance new skills in groups. “This year’s Dance Exchange was packed from beginning to end with awesome and intense dance and movement workshops,” says Ms. Levy, a chaperone.

          Ms. Levy mentions that “there were so many incredible highlights over the weekend, and the two that stand out the most were the two workshops that opened and closed on the weekend: an Aerial Silks workshop led by AirDance Contemporary Dance Company, and a massive Zumba class that every single student and coach in attendance participated in.”

        Jasmine Karaul, a dance student in 10th grade, said that every Dance Exchange is about “making new IASAS friends, and seeing old ones. [She] got to see so many old friends from last year’s IASAS and exchange. It was also really great to connect with the community again” Jasmine Karaul (10).

          Jacelia Breedlove, another dance student in 10th grade commented that some of the highlights during exchange was “the wide range of workshops and how much we learned from each of the different teachers and the styles. The experiences that we earned was really helpful and interesting to me” Jacelia Breedlove (10).

IASAS Dance is coming up soon and all of us are interested in their preparation process, as well as, what they are looking forward to: Jasmine refers to the competition between the participating schools and says, “There is no competition between the schools which makes the experience really fun. Since the team is not yet finalized, I feel like we are able to bond with each other and learn from all the new choreographers by combining everyone’s ideas to create a final piece.”

          When multiple international schools meet one another during IASAS, it creates “continually diverse experiences for our dancers. A wonderful constant from year to year would have to be the community of IASAS dancers that continue to come back to exchange, work together, share ideas, and overall create lasting memories and friendships!” according to  Ms. Levy.

          Dance Exchange is mainly focused on developing, improving, and discovering their full potential when they are challenged by their dance skills. Furthermore, Jacelia mentions exchange is “different each year because the people who go on it are not always the same, and dancers do not feel pressured. Thus, anyone can sign up if they want to dance.” Ultimately, you can always “bet that something different new and fun are going to occur each exchange” says Jasmine.

Keep your eyes out for any performances coming up by these talented dancers!

Carissa Tan (10)