The newly added Just Dance class, taught by Upper School performing arts teacher Adriana Durant, captured students’ attention while searching for a class to fulfill their performing arts credit at the beginning of this school year.

The class is named after the video game Just Dance, developed by Ubisoft, which allows the players to follow on-screen dances along to a variety of trending songs, ranging from upbeat pop songs to classic rock. The video game gained popularity due to its accessibility for dancers of every skill level and age but has continued to keep up with recently released songs. According to Ubisoft’s website, “Just Dance 2024 Edition brings you over 40 new songs.”

Ms. Durant incorporated Just Dance videos into the new class. At the beginning of the course, each student introduces two Just Dance videos of their choice, and the group performs every dance selected. The students then rank each video based on the difficulty and select their top five dances.

“We learned the dances in order of easiest to hardest,” Ms. Durant said. “This year we have done Prince Ali, Waka Waka, Timber, and we just finished Gangnam Style.”

At the end of the semester, the students have an optional opportunity to collaborate with the filmmaking class to create their own green screen version of a Just Dance instructional video. Students can showcase the routines they learned by performing in costume on video.

These students will showcase their videos as the finale to Latin’s dance concert, an exhibition of all the performing arts classes and groups. Ms. Durant said, “The dancers from the dance company will have never seen the video until performance night. They will come out and do the Just Dance as a finale.”

One of the Just Dance students participating in the video for the finale is sophomore Matthew Hart. Matthew signed up for Just Dance while searching for an exciting way to fulfill his performing arts credit. “This class caught my eye because my brothers and I grew up playing Just Dance on the Wii together, so it was very nostalgic,” he said.

Matthew said the overall environment of the class is fun and playful. Performing in front of his peers in Just Dance encouraged him to step outside of his comfort zone. He was pleasantly surprised to learn that individual dance movements were graded, although he had not anticipated such detailed attention.

Matthew said, “I thought that we were just doing the dances for fun, but it turned out to be a pleasant surprise because I didn’t realize I could memorize choreography and enjoy it until I joined this class.”

The Just Dance rubric categories of techniques are mechanics, musicality, movement intention, range of motion, and sequence knowledge. Due to the variation in skill level, the grading system in Just Dance focuses on each individual student’s growth.

Sophomore Naomi Herman joined the class with extensive experience in dance. For 10 years, Naomi was a competitive dancer at All About Dance, a dance studio in Old Town, Chicago. She trained in contemporary, hip hop, ballet, jazz, tap, modern, and several other dance styles.

Although vastly different from competitive dance, Just Dance has its own appeal. “I chose to join the class because I thought it would be a fun way to get an art credit,” Naomi said. “It has been a nice way to relieve stress during the busy school day.”

Not everyone has the same dance background as Naomi. In fact, most students don’t have dance experience at all. The adaptive and supportive environment of the class makes it easy for students to enjoy the class without the added pressure of having advanced background knowledge. Just Dance focuses on availability for every student, regardless of their previous skill level, ensuring the opportunity for everyone to participate in the class.

Ms. Durant said, “Even though there is a coordination aspect, Just Dance is accessible to more students. If they might have a break in their day, students can try dancing to see if they like it.”