On Nov. 14, the Hockaday Dance Department transported the Upper School back to their childhood as they performed a collection of Aesop’s Fables, including “The Tortoise and the Hare,” “The Boy Who Cried Wolf,” and “Peter and the Wolf.”
According to Performing Arts Chair Beth Wortley, she and fellow dance teacher Christie Sullivan began planning their visions for the fall performance last spring.
“With the new arts facility, everybody in the arts department is trying to do something special to introduce the theater to everybody in a unique way,” Wortley said. “We really wanted to bring in some students from one of the schools we tutor and let them experience our new facilities and something they may have never seen before.”
The dance department also performed on Nov. 10 in front of about 100 students from Tom C. Gooch Elementary School, which is one of the many schools Hockaday students tutor at on the weekends.
According to Gooch fourth graders Ximena Salazar and Kevin Cruz, the performance was impressive and both Salazar and Cruz were impressed by the dancers.
“The wolf [senior Megan Hudspeth] was a really good dancer,” Salazar said. “The dancers were also all really pretty.”
Ahead of the performance, junior Sharon Zhang, who played a hunter and tree in Peter and the Wolf, hoped that the Upper School would appreciate the hard work that the dance classes put into the performance.
“I am really excited about how the school is going to react, especially to Peter and the Wolf,” Zhang said. “It is just [Hockaday Dance Theatre] and we are a very small company and everyone is really good.”
In order to further utilize the new Nasher-Haemisegger Theater, Wortley narrated the “Peter and the Wolf ” story and dialogue with the help of a new and improved sound system.
“The lighting is so different from anything we have ever had before. It is so beautiful,” Wortley said. “The sound is better than it has ever been. I was able to build some big set pieces that I do not normally get to do.”
As Wortley said before the show began, “we want you to be transformed back to your childhood. Please enjoy the show.”
Katie O’Meara- Photo & Graphics Editor
