DanceWest is a school dance program at West Anchorage High School. It gives kids at the school an opportunity to put on different school dance performances such as Ebenezer, Nutcracker, and Mystique, to show the school and the anchorage community what they have learned and have been working on over the course of the semester. Lex Pasana, De’ajah McGowan, and Nazune Avila are all in the DanceWest program and have been for years.

17-year-old Pasana started dancing two years ago in the DanceWest program. Over one year Pasana became a better dancer switching from a beginning class to a more advanced class. “I started out in sixth hour which is a beginning class. Now I’m in fourth hour which is dance advance.” In order to be able to have the stamina and the moves to do everything they learn they have to condition a lot by running around the “It’s a very family feeling, like you get close to a lot of people” says 18-year-old McGowan who loves how close everyone is in the program. She is in the fourth hour advanced dance class but started out two years ago in the intermediate class. She says that dance instructor, Lori Bradford, is like a second mom to her and everyone else in the program. The DanceWest family puts on a different performance each semester and they seems to love all of them. “My favorite dance performance would have to be Ebenezer” a performance they did in December of 2016.

Senior Avila is 17-years-old at West High School. “I’ve been in the DanceWest program for six semesters.” She is currently in fourth hour advanced dance, but like Pasana, and McGowan, she as well started out in the sixth hour intermediate dance class. Each class has professional choreographers who come in to teach the students all of their dance material they need. The advanced class consists of over 30 people Each member who dances in DanceWest helps add a little extra by contributing to the choreography. There is also a seventh hour class where they help with props and the making of the performance, and they can also be apart of the dance performance if they would like.

DanceWest is a very family like program where West High Students get to put on different dance performances for all of their friends, fellow students, and comment members.West High auditorium. They even do a lot of different stretches, and yoga. They do a total of four performances per semester and it takes all of semester to learn and perfect the dances.