By Nasheetah Hossain
On Friday September 27, the dance team hosted its annual Dancing with the Staff, a fundraiser based on ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars.” . iGranada adviser Robert Palafox took first place for his spirited Cha Cha, performed with senior Jennifer Beristain and junior Faith Klijian.
Similar to “Dancing with the Stars,” the judges scored each performance between one and ten. They then ranked the performers into a list of the top seven, which were placed online for the audience to vote upon.
The teams were judged by three professional dancers, each with impressive credits: Gabriel Croom, Jonathan Redavid, and Aubree Storm. Croom is known for performing on Broadway in musicals such as “The Lion King” and “West Side Story.” Redavid was a dancer in “The Greatest Showman, and has performed on “Dancing with the Stars.” Storm was recently in Will Ferrell’s “Step Brothers” and has performed with Justin Bieber.
As the votes came in, drama teacher Stuart Fingeret, dancing in the contemporary style, was announced as the winner of the night. Fingeret’s dance was certainly memorable, however. He appeared with a Sia wig and pranced around the stage. Of this performance, Redavid said, “I wouldn’t be able to choreograph something like that. That’s genius to me.” Storm added, “You should be studied.”
However, the morning after, dance teacher Dana Fukagawa released an email stating that there had been an error with the tabulation announcing the wrong winners.
With the updated votes, Palafox came in first place, English teacher Marueen Grandchamp dancing K-Pop came in second, and counselor Christopher Gimber dancing 90’s hip hop came in third.
There was a variety of different performances, including Bollywood from English teacher Kate Bryan, disco from counselor Lynda Llamas, and Paso Doble from Mandarin teacher Dennis Tanner.
“It was honestly really fun watching all the teachers go on stage and showcase their hidden talents. It’s even more fun seeing your own teachers up there and your class supporting them,” senior Niko Gevorgian said.
Throughout the night, the mood of the show was greatly influenced by the audience. Not only did the performances light up the hall, the spectators joined in too, including the judges.
Just as Croom remarked that Mandell had “carefree with so much swag,” nothing beats Gimber’s son yelling out “daddy,” which later inspired Croom to call him ‘Mac Daddy #1’.
Although there were some glitches with the results, the night itself was successful and enjoyable. It was a true celebration of staff-student relationships, while also raising money for the dance team.
“The event had a lot of energy to it, whether it came from the dancers on stage, the audience, or both. Some performances had more energy coming from the audience shouting support for their favorite teachers,” Gevorgian said.
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