On Thursday, January 16th the Loyola Academy dance jam took place. While the talent was at an all time high, attendance was at a low.

The dance jam is a performance put on by the various dance classes. Each dancer is assigned a group, and they have a couple of months to choreograph a dance to perform.

The dance jam was created seven years ago by Ms. Henslee. When asked why she started it, she responded by saying that “They [the dance students] were so good, and only being shown in the classroom. It was a shame.” At the time, the dances were only being performed for the class, and being graded on the spot.

Ms. Henslee and another teacher, Ms. Sneidhard, saw how incredible these dances were, and felt the need to share them with the broader Loyola community.

The administration had given them permission to do performances at night, but not during the day. They eventually were given permission to do performances during lunch periods, which they had taken away and this is its first year back.

“Three quarters of the auditorium was filled with family,” said Ms. Henslee talking about the night performance. This sadly was not the case when it came to the lunch period performance.

Marygrace Calk is an honors dance student and has been performing in the dance jam all four years in her career at Loyola. When asked about the attendance during the day, she said “It’s kind of what I expected. It’s never packed by any means. Friends come, teachers come to support as well.”

Marygrace believes that the low attendance is due to the poor advertisement. When a handful of students were asked if they had gone to the dance jam, many responded by saying that they didn’t even know it was happening. Marygrace said that they advertised by making Tik Tocks and sending them to friends. This may be why only friends knew.

Claire Coleman was an observer at the dance jam. When asked why she went, she said that it was because she was friends with one of the performers, otherwise she most likely wouldn’t have gone because she didn’t hear about it.

This was her first time at a fine arts event at Loyola. When I asked her to compare the attendance of the dance jam to a sporting event, she said that there was a clear difference. “Many students go to sporting events because they are said in the announcements and hyped up. The dance jam wasn’t advertised in that way so that could be a cause” said Claire.

I asked her if she would go to the dance jam again, and she said absolutely, and she believes that other students would as well if they heard about it.

The dance jam proved to be an important event. It connects the dances that students are working on in class to the greater public. Students should attend this event in the future to see a new light shed on the fine arts classes.