Bruins danced and sang into the season with the annual Home for the Holidays show.
The Home for the Holidays show has been a traditional Bear River Holiday performance for past three years. Created by Dance Teacher Joyce Gouveia, this show usually consists of Bear River’s Band, Women’s and Men’s Chorus, Jazz Unlimited, and Dance 1 & 2 that takes place in the theater. There is usually also an Art Show in the MPR.
This year instead of a nighttime Holiday show, it was changed to a Bruin Time after-school act.
“The performance was changed because we did not have enough material for a full show in the evening,” explained Ms. Gouveia. “The art show, drama act and band were not eliminated. We had the date on the calendar since August, it just did not work out. We would never exclude any group that wanted to perform from the performance. We are inclusive, not exclusive.”
This Bruin Time show was composed of “a gathering of the vibes” said Ms. Gouveia. It kick-started with a dance number choreographed by Bear River alumna Hallie Pattitt, which was a bit more solemn and contemporary. It was followed up with the Women’s Chorus singing “Silver Bells,” the Men’s Chorus singing “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree,” Jazz Unlimited singing “Christmas Is,” then having the all three participating choir groups singing “Feliz Navidad.” The show was wrapped up with a hip hop jazz dance number choreographed by Jacqueline Fries, assistant choreographer to Ms. Gouveia.
“It was stressful learning both choreographies in the few weeks we had,” said Janelle Cayton, a sophomore dancer. “But for the amount of time we had to learn it we did really well.”
“Men’s Chorus has improved ridiculously,” said Trey Jarman, a junior from Men’s Chorus. “We used to be awful. You know how in every single bad movie where there’s singing and everyone sings off key? We were worst than that. But we’ve definitely grown since then.”
“We did good!” said an enthusiastic River Jarman, a freshman from Women’s Chorus. “We could’ve done better though, you see we talk a lot in class … but I trust that we will be a kick bum choir squad in the end.”
“For the performance being so short, I felt it went really well,” said Matthew Snyder, a junior from Jazz Unlimited. “We all felt confident in a lot of parts and it was just a good environment to be in. In JU there’s a certain level of professionalism to be held standard and I definitely think we all are at that level.”
