Dance has been such a positive influence on me throughout my years of being at Hauppauge High school. I have danced outside of school since I was four years old and loved it since I started. When I found out in middle school that the high school had a dance program, I was so excited to join. When I was a freshman, I had no idea what to expect when I first walked into the dance room. Mrs. Cavuoto was so welcoming to everyone in my class and it felt very nice.

The Hauppauge dance company now has three classes, dance 1 which is the only freshman, dance 2 has sophomores, juniors, and seniors, and IB dance which is offered to juniors and seniors. My freshman year class was very small but we still had a lot of fun in that class. Once I started my sophomore, junior, and senior years, my classes got bigger and it still was a whole lot of fun. When you’re in dance 2, you can start choreographing dances, I never did but I was always in other people’s dances that I liked just by learning a few counts. Normally the person teaches a few counts of eight and if you want to stay in it, you can or if you don’t want to do it, that’s ok. No one ever forces you to do a dance that you don’t want to do. At the end of every year, we have an Evening of Dance where we perform dances for our family and friends, and at the end of my sophomore year, I was inducted into the National Honor Society for Dance Arts. My teacher likes to do a little ceremony in the beginning to recognize everyone who has recently joined. Once that day comes, dance is basically over for the rest of the year which is very sad. Also, we have so many different field trips, I have been to them all. We have performed for the middle school every year. We also go to the elementary schools to teach them a little bit of dance and play fun games with them. Normally we go to Forest Brook School or Bretton Woods Elementary School. After we go to the elementary schools, we get McDonald’s for lunch as a group. We have also gone to the Stage the Change field trip which is held at LIU Post.

During that day, we take two classes with other schools and it is normally a fun day. Also, another big fun field trip that is very popular and that normally the whole dance 2 goes on is to the city. Every year, we go see a Broadway show and take a class at Broadway Dance Center. We normally take a professional dance class from 10:30 am to 12 pm and the Broadway show is at 2 pm. Everyone loves that day because we get to miss the whole day of school and come back late at night. That day is probably my favorite day out of the whole year. My freshman year we saw Waitress and my sophomore year we saw Be More Chill. They were both really good. Due to Covid, we couldn’t go to the city my junior and senior years which made me really sad. Dancing makes me so happy and when I’m dancing with my friends, it makes me even happier. I have gotten so close to many of my friends that I started dancing with throughout the years in the dance room. Stepping into the dance room every day for the past four years has put the biggest smile on my face once I walked