As McCallum’s Dance program expands, in their building and in their dance major class size, the variety of guest teachers and styles has also been amplified this year. With the larger fundraising goal from the past few years, Mac Dance directors Natalie Uehara and Terrance Carson have been able to use their new budget to provide the majors with new guest choreographers to teach new styles of dance. Inspired by the students themselves, they both agreed to extend the styles that the dance program has to offer this year.

“Just in general, we wanted to expand the different techniques that will be provided in the dance program and also, at the end of every year we do a feedback form that just asks the students what they liked and what they want to see more of,” Uehara said. “More guest teachers was one of the things people mentioned wanting to see more of so we wanted to add in some variety.”

The styles that were added range from a new modern technique, Limon, taught by Ty Graynor, to a hip-hop class taught by Jonas Veiza. With this wide range, Uerhara and Carson were hoping to be able to find a new fit for each dancer and not just focus on one kind of dance. That way each of the dance majors’ requests from the feedback forms were filled.

“I liked Jared’s drop in hip hop class a lot,” sophomore Emma Simon said. “Since we already have a consistent hip-hop teacher, it was fun to break it up and get to learn from a different teacher with a different style of hip hop. It was easier to keep up with and it was a fun atmosphere.”

Luckily, the dance program has been able to support two different kinds of guest teachers: drop-in teachers who teach a class once and stay-in teachers who come once or twice a month. Between these two options, the dancers have gotten much more experience with different kinds of teaching and are able to connect quickly with their choreographers.

“I think it’s a lot better to have the same teacher multiple times because in the classes that we are getting, specifically the modern classes, you’re able to build upon what you learned in the last class,” senior Zoe Maxwell said. “I think it also allows the students to warm up to the teacher and it kind of makes it feel like the teacher is a part of Mac Dance.”

The expansion in dance styles isn’t just beneficial to the dance majors in high school, but if they continue to practice dance in college they will already have much more experience with these techniques. This can give them a higher chance of getting into the college of their choice.

“I knew that I wanted to add in Limon because I knew Ty, the teacher, and I just knew that it’s a style done in most colleges,” Uehara said. “That’s been my main focus this year, just getting our students ready for college.”

This isn’t the only thing the dance directors have done to prepare the dance majors for college this year. They have also added a new ACC dance history course for the seniors in place of one of their dance periods. This course explores more discussion, reading and writing, which is very similar to a typical college dance course. With the combination of these two additions, the program has broadened its curriculum immensely. 

“I think the new added guest teachers give the students a more heightened curriculum, and it expands their opportunities,” Maxwell said. “Having different teachers can really help you learn how to adapt in the dance world. I think it also just makes the program more advanced and it kind of puts Mac Dance ahead of other schools.”

In future years, Uehara still hopes to add one more style, Graham, a different modern technique; however, she has yet to find a teacher in Austin who consistently teaches the style. Either way, both her and her students feel like this year has been a huge step up for the program in terms of guest teachers and guest choreographers and they agree that the variety of styles is a mass improvement.

“Overall, I think having more guest choreographers helps expand our dance palette and allows us to experience other choreographers rather than just our regular teachers,” Simon said. “It’s fun to have a different teacher other than our normal Mac Youth Dance Company teachers because it’s nice to get to build a relationship with consistent guest teachers.”