Thursday marked the last chance for the 86 performers in this year’s Upper School Dance Show to practice and get their stage fright out before the curtain comes up for real.

The show’s theme is “Dancing Through Life: Celebrating Our Past and Looking to the Future;” it is being directed by dance teachers Karl Kuehn and Amalia De La Rosa. This past week, the entire group assembled daily at the Blackford campus, the venue for the show, to dance with blocking, lights, and even full costumes and hairstyles.

“It’s been going great, [but] it’s been a little tiring [since] we’ve had rehearsals every day. Overall, it’s been really exciting to see all the dances,” Anika Gupta (10) said.

She performs in one dance in the show, and she has been a part of the annual production since third grade as have many other dance members. Each campus has its own unique performance every year.

Besides the choreography by Kuehn and De La Rosa, the show also features the work of three guest choreographers, and four dances by student choreographers.

There will be a show for the middle school students during school on Friday, an evening show for a general audience on both Friday and Saturday, and a Saturday matinee showing. During lunch on Thursday, Varsity dancer Tiphaine Delepine (11) was selling tickets.

“We’ve sold two-thirds of the tickets for most of the shows […], and we’re feeling pretty good about it, but we really want to be sold out,” she said.

Sarika Asthana (12), also a Varsity dancer, said this year’s production is more organized than ever before.

“[For this] run-through week, the times are a bit shorter, and things seem to flow a bit smoother […]. I feel like people are more confident with what they’re doing,” she said.

Tickets are still available through [email protected].