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Students develop play

Production written and choreographed by members of dance class is also performed by them.

January 10, 2007|By Ani Amirkhanian

The auditorium stage at John Burroughs High School was turned into a dark forest on Tuesday.

Students rehearsed for the upcoming production of "Enchanted," a dance play, which students Timothy Tristan and Lindsey Whitener wrote and choreographed.

About 30 students from the Burroughs High School Dance Assn. performed contemporary jazz and ballet dances during the after-school rehearsal.

"The biggest thing I have learned is to communicate the concept of this dance to other people," said Tristan, 18.

Tristan and Whitener, both 18, got the idea for their dance play last year and presented it to the dance association.

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"Enchanted" is a story about good versus evil and is told through music and dance, Tristan said.

"It's about an angel and a demon that fall in love," Tristan said. "It's about love and how outside interferences can hinder that."

The cast of characters include, goblins, pixies, angels, jesters and demon girls.

Marian Mikhail, 16, plays a goblin with her friends Patricia Campos, 17, Gaby Vega, 17, and Graciela Morales, 16.

"We have to get into character," Marian said. "We are the evil side of the play."

The girls will be wearing green tops, leggings, shorts and leg warmers that they made themselves.

"It's been stressful," Patricia said, referring to the rehearsals. "I have to balance school and work."

For her role as a demon girl, Tania Corte, 17, wore a skirt with a leotard and fishnet stockings.

"I have to dance to tell the story," Tania said. As the demon girls, our job is to seduce the main character, who falls in love with an angel."

The group began rehearsing in mid-October and students met during the winter holiday to practice dancing, dance teacher Marilyn Suleiman said.

"It's been a long, tedious and wonderful process and they have learned tremendously about theater," Suleiman said. "I just have been here to direct and do one choreography and the rest is theirs."

The students, who are all in Suleiman's advanced dance class, have developed their dance skills over time with instruction and rehearsals, Suleiman said.

"We don't have to please the audience, we have to expose them to our art," she said.

"Enchanted" will open at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday and end with two shows on Friday and Saturday at 7 p.m. at the Burroughs High School Auditorium, 1920 Clark Ave., Burbank.

Tickets are $5 for students and $7 for adults.

For more information, call (818) 558-4777.

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