By Michael Beaumont
Photos by Gustavo Menezes

We had the opportunity to ask Ms. Denise Masters about the Jackie Park Show being held tomorrow on January 6th, 2018!

 

How is the Jackie Park Show different than any other dance show held at Rush?
MASTERS: “The Jackie Park Show is not all just dance, it’s live music, drama, theatre, literary work, and involves sets to tell a story. Even art is involved in the show. Every major comes together to make this show happen.”

Are the preparations for this show different than any other dance performance?
MASTERS: “Compared to the Spring Dance Show where everyone is a dance major, there needs to be lot more communication to make things work since everyone involved is in a different art department. My elective class students tend to be in different majors so they really help me out with this communication.”

Can you tell us about Jackie Park?
MASTERS: “Jackie Park was a student from the very first class who had an extremely difficult life. She had overcome a lot of abuse. Probably the worst abuse I’ve ever heard in my life. She knew education would get her away from her situation. Her mother was mostly absent in her life and she entered the foster care system at a young age. She spent most of her time in school and got involved in a lot of activities because it was the only place she felt safe. She was multi-talented and empathetic, she was always willing to help anyone out. That is why I honor her with the show and scholarship to help out children similar to her who overcame difficult times and still come to school to improve their life for them and future generations.”

How did this idea of preserving Jackie’s memory come to be?
MASTERS: “I was on vacation when I heard Jackie passed away. At this point we only had a ninth grade staff so obviously everyone was really close. I had just talked to Jackie two weeks before helping her out with the last bit of money she needed for college. I knew as a dance instructor I wanted to do something for her because it was my goal to teach my students how to give back to society through their arts, whether it be raising money and doing big events. I knew when I heard what happened to her I wanted to dedicate my winter dance show to her and continue to build it up to this day. I talked to my principal at the time and everyone contributed to making this happen since we all wanted to do something for her.”

Why is Note to God the song tributed to Jackie?
MASTERS: “Jackie used to bring in proposal music to me that she liked. I thought it sent out a great message and was really powerful. I choreographed the piece and worked with Jackie alone to perfect the solo I gave her. After the first successful implementation of the piece in the show I knew I wanted to continue to use this song so everyone can hear its message. This was especially true after Jackie passed away, so I made it a form of passage for my senior class to look forward to at the end of the program.”

Is the choreography for Note to God the exact same each year or is it altered at any point? If so, how?
MASTERS: “Barely at all. There were, of course, subtle changes here and there. The only changes I make are due to numbers and the population of dancers at the time, but for the most part the choreography is mostly identical except for a couple angle changes to make it more dynamic.”

Is there anything we should keep a lookout for while we watch this particular iteration of the Winter Festival?
MASTERS: “Everything. Everything is amazing. I’ll tell you now that I have some surprise lined up for the show. There’s going to be a four-tier cake. Parents are going to decorate the hallways. Everyone put tons of effort in and I believe everyone is really going to enjoy themselves.”