The Orchesis team will shine in the spotlight, dancing in their upcoming show on February 8-9.

The team of 25 girls will perform to “a wide variety of dances,” such as contemporary, jazz, lyrical, open, and hip-hop music in 18 dances during the show, said Lexi Karwowski, senior, and president of the Orchesis team.

Unlike previous years, the team had a professional choreographer from Chicago Dance Crash instead of a Lake Zurich Alumni choreograph their dances.

“Our choreographer introduced a new way to do hip-hop for us,” Julia Borek, freshman, said, “He is so fun to work with because he looks at us as dancers and tries to give each of us a chance to do something that expresses ourselves within our dance.”

According to Karwowski, a new hip-hop choreographer will bring change to the show, “making people want to see the show more because the team [will not just be] doing the same thing for an hour and a half the whole time.”

However, despite the new hip-hop routine, there were some difficulties in getting the dance implemented, since everyone on the team dances hip-hop, which made it difficult for some girls to learn the dance quickly, Karwowski said. 

Despite this difficulty though, Karwowski says that the captains of the team were essential in ensuring that everyone would be ready for the show. Being one of the only dance clubs in school, the captains not only have to run their team, but the team has to work hard to display their talents.

 “Not everyone in the school knows who we are, especially the freshmen, and in the performance, we want to show what we’re capable of and let people know who we are,” Borek said.

  Although most of the girls already dance competitively at their home studios, having peers choreograph the dance is a good change to the team, Cara Obrochta, orchesis sponsor, said.

“I think because of their outside experience at studios, they are used to working with the professionals so it’s kinda fun for them to learn from their peers, and it’s really fun to watch what the girls come up with,” Obrochta said.

Obrochta enjoys watching her team because “they’re all very different, but when they dance they come together, and it’s very different from the dance you’ll see from the cheerleaders or poms.”

With the show coming up soon, this is some of the girls’ last performance.

“The show is really special to me,” Karwowski said, “because it shows how a group of people who didn’t know each other could come together and create dances together and have fun.”

If you’re interested in coming to see the end result of the orchesis team’s hard work and practice, make sure to check them out on Friday, Feb. 8 and Saturday, Feb. 9 at 7 pm. Tickets will be available at the door, $8 for adults and $6 for students/children.