This past Friday and Saturday, the Niles West orchesis team finally revealed their much-anticipated performance to audiences.

The performance, Mended, which is named to represent change, was performed at the Niles West auditorium during the Friday school day for a community performance, as well as a 6:30 show later that night and one on Saturday as well.

The show was especially unique because of the blended types of dance that the dancers performed such as hip-hop, ballet, jazz, step, and modern. Combining all of these various styles of dance together for this one-hour performance wasn’t easy, it took a lot of long days and hard work to achieve the mastery of all of these dances.

“We would usually have six-hour practices every Saturday for a new dance, as well as dedicating to hours every Wednesday and Friday to clean it up,” explains sophomore and dancer Karly Svachula.

The team started preparing for the performance at the very beginning of the season, and continued to perfect the dance each week, eventually turning it into the beautiful performance audience members were fortunate enough to view.

As well as group numbers, the show included several solo performances, one performed by senior Taline Karagozian to Clocks by Coldplay.

“Having a solo in the show is definitely a lot of pressure, just because I’m on the stage alone without my team supporting me,” Karagozian said.

Not only did the show include several diverse styles of dances and solos, but Friday’s community performance also included a number from the CEC students. The students who participated, along with a few student helpers, worked on a dance to Justin Timberlake’s “Can’t Stop The Feeling”, and even ended the number with an energetic free dance, that certainly proved to be a crowd pleaser just by the roar of the audience’s applause at the end.

“It was so fun to work with them on the dance, they were all super excited to be apart of the show, and it looked like the crowd was excited by it too,” one of the CEC aids Junior Kat Krizz said.

Overall, the months of hard work put into the show definitely paid off.

“The entire company really wanted the show to be amazing. It took a lot of practice and late nights, but were able to accomplice it.” Karagozian said.

It’s also important to remember that as well as the amazingly talented dancers the performed in the show, there are also many choreographers, coaches, and crews that helped put this amazing show together.

“We definitely owe our success to the show to not just the dancers, but out coaches Alex Bedoya and Danielle Thompson, as well as our crew who spent this whole week making sure that all the effects of the show were just right.” sophomore and team member Gianna Pauly said.

It’s especially important to provide recognition to the crew because of all of the amazing effects that made the dances so great. The perfection of the lighting on the dancers at specific times with specific color contributed to the many different alluring visual effects (besides of course the amazing dance numbers).

All of these factors made the show beautiful, and it’s safe to say that Orchesis’s performance of Mended was certainly a performance to remember.