Guys and Dolls wins Dance Chicago competition

Guys and Dolls wins Dance Chicago competition

Beth Waller

On November 3rd, Whitney Young’s dance team, Guys and Dolls, competed in Dance Chicago. They performed their dance, Rapt, choreographed for the team 10 years ago. It was their guest artist piece for the Dance Chicago Competition. The team won the competition that year. And on their 10th anniversary, they performed Rapt again for the competition and won. They received first place for the categories, best performance, best choreography, and best technique. New member to the team, Stanley Cannon ‘22, was watching in the audience,”You can really tell the intent and story behind every movement phrase and feel the emotional and energy that the dancers put into the dance. It’s so thrilling because I feel like I was living the dance with all of them”.

They competed among 30 other pieces, one also being Guys and Dolls guest artist peace from this year, choreographed by renowned Chicago dance director, Richard Smith. This piece also did very well, placing 9th in a competition. The team felt very inspired performing Rapt piece in the competition just 2 days after performing this piece Michelle Obama, who then told them to be proud of their work and that they could do anything. “There was a sense of pride performing that piece knowing Michelle Obama had said she was proud of us for dancing and being ourselves,” says Ursula Wolf ‘21, who was a dancer in the piece. It was a great honor for the dance team to win this year in the 10 year anniversary of their first win with the piece Rapt. Dance teacher, Ms. Gordon says, “I wanted to celebrate the 10 year anniversary of a timeless piece that has touched hearts of our dancers and audience members over the past years. It was a full circle moment that we will all treasure for a lifetime,”. Watch the dancers perform their winning piece Rapt again at the Guys and Dolls show in January!