Greetings from California!

We made it to LA LA Land and we couldn’t have lucked out more with this beautiful weather! After we arrived, we caravanned to the Roosevelt Hotel to check in and then ran to the In-n-Out for a juicy burger! After lunch, we enjoyed sightseeing on the Hollywood Tour and soaked in the beautiful views. We had a great dinner at The Grove and the very sleepy dancers are finally in bed ready to get rest so they can dance the day away tomorrow.

Stay tuned for tomorrow’s update!

Applause Awards
Congratulations to you all! We are pleased to announce that between the A and B cast, we have received 32 Nominations for the 2018 Applause Awards!

All of you were recognized as an Outstanding Ensemble!
We will know who the “finalists” are (those who get to perform at the Applause Awards) on or before May 5th.
The entire cast needs to block off June 2nd in the event that we are a finalist for Outstanding Musical and are invited to perform. All individuals named in this email also need to keep that date open as well.

Nominations
*please note, some students/categories were nominated in both casts, but are only listed once. Hence, you will only see 25 nominations below.

Outstanding Musical
Outstanding Ensemble
Outstanding Orchestra
Outstanding Technical Achievement
Lead Performer:
Kira “Dove” Haas
Emilie Scheetz
Kaiwen “Roderick” Shi
Supporting Performers:
Riley O’Hern
Alex Sheffield
Cole Jackson
Leah Meyer
Scarlett Sheridan
Acting Performers: Alexander Brand
Honorable Mention (Performance): Alexander Brand
Director: Mary Walden, Alexander Brand
Musical Director: Emily Tousek
Choreographer: Rosemarie Redman
Stage Manager: Rosemarie Redman, Krista Restivo, Yasmin Fotovat
Set Designer: Tom Davis
Lighting Designer: Amy Hadley
Sound Designer: Emily Tousek
Costume Designer: Kira “Dove” Haas

This past week Becka Vargas the Dance Curriculum Specialist from Juilliard visited WPS. During her visit, Becka taught lessons from the Juilliard Creative Classroom to Lower, Middle, and High School Dance students. Becka also observed our amazing dance teachers at work! We are so grateful for this amazing collaboration with Juilliard!

We are thrilled to have Becka Vargus, our Juilliard Dance Curriculum Specialist, back on our campus working with our teachers and students.

Connor Totilas, Gavin Dong, and Rayyan Shaik had the opportunity to perform in one of the top honor music festivals in the state, at the Frost School of Music, this weekend. Performing under the baton of legendary conductor Gary Green, these students performed a variety of concert literature and marches.