Every year, an event called the Dance Performance Adjudication takes place in Wake County. All middle and high schools in Wake County can sign up to participate and perform their dance for a panel of adjudicators who score participants. DPA is an exhibition where participants receive  scores, feedback, and possibly an award. This year, twenty schools participated in DPA, including Enloe. There were three dances from Enloe that were performed. Every dance performed by Enloe students was choreographed by them as well: “Morph” by senior Kate Lingo, “Budapest” by senior Reya Jameson, and “In Passing” by juniors Ellie Cook and Sophia Stewart. 

DPA took place on November 13th at Broughton High School this year. The official score sheet includes artistry, performance, choreography, technique, control, and for group dances; synchronization and spacing. Our very own Enloe dancers were judged based on these categories.

When interviewing Kate Lingo about her piece, “Morph,” she spoke a lot about her choreography process: “I started just trying to get as much choreography out as I could and then slowly built up from there and was changing it and how it looked constantly. And there are so many videos on my phone of the process because sometimes I’ll change the choreo so much that I’ll forget about it the next time I go to work on it.” Lingo’s piece is about body dysmorphia and how it can change the perception of one’s self. Her piece reflects this theme with slow, controlled movements and how she communicates with the space around her. Lingo was awarded with Superior Rating and an average score of 98.5 out of 100.

Reya Jameson’s piece, “Budapest” stood out from the rest, in the sense that it was choreographed as a tap dance.  As Jameson was performing a tap piece, the rhythmic element of the music she was dancing to was very important. Jameson recorded herself improvising  with the music to see what would work with the song. In the end, half of Jameson’s choreography was based on improv and the other half was based on traveling, transitions, and timing. When asked about why she chose DPA as an opportunity, Jameson said, “This is the first time I’ve choreographed a full-length piece on my own and I wanted to see what I need to work on as a choreographer and dancer.” Jameson was awarded with Superior Rating and an average score of 97.

As the sole duo performance from Enloe, Ellie Cook and Sophia Stewart’s modern piece, “In Passing,” certainly caught the attention of the audience members and judges alike. Although  they differ in styles, the duo felt the same leading up to the performance: “In all honesty I wasn’t overly enthused leading up to the actual live performance, partially because I wasn’t sure what to expect. But the energy of the audience and the other schools performing was infectious. I ended up feeling really proud about what we made…” Even though Ellie had her doubts before the performance, her reason for choosing DPA was full of passion: “I’ve done a lot of choreography for myself and in collaboration with others, and a lot of it has been performed and given casual feedback, usually from parents… I wanted a chance to show work that was made only out of passion and get honest, critical feedback on it.” As a duet performance, the two dancers had to approach their choreography process differently than others. They came into weekly practices with individual ideas and collaborated to continue choreographing the dance around those ideas. The dance going from isolation to connection followed a theme that everyone experiences hardships, but if you take the time to look around, you’ll realize that others may be feeling the same. Cook and Stewart’s piece was awarded with Superior Rating and an average score of 99.

Dance Performance Adjudication is an immensely important event for dancers in Wake County that others may not have heard of. Dancers at Enloe, Reya Jameson, Kate Lingo, Ellie Cook and Sophia Stewart, took the valuable opportunity to showcase their skills, in dance and choreographing, at this event and performed well. The links to recordings of their performances are featured below:

“Budapest” by Reya Jameson – YouTube

“In Passing” by Sophia Stewart & Ellie Cook – YouTube

“Morph” by Kate Lingo – YouTube