Pitman High School’s Associated Student Body (ASB) and a majority of students made a collaborative effort to have a stupendous homecoming week, including the rally and the game. Students from nearly every activity here on campus participated in the rally, halftime show, or week games. For its own contribution, Drama Club invited the entire school to perform the “Safety Dance” based off a cover of the song from the hit television show, Glee.

Although the entire school was invited to participate, the vast majority of the participants were from Drama Club. In fact, two of the club’s officers, Samantha Cotton and Patrick Norris, choreographed and taught the entire dance two weeks prior to the Homecoming Game. On brainstorming possible performance ideas, Patrick Norris comments, “We got the idea when a rerun of an episode of Glee was on, and our drama teacher, Ms. McBay, told us she really wanted us to find a way to use it.”

Following the Drama department’s recent successful performance at the back-to-school rally, it was asked to perform at the homecoming game, presenting Patrick and Samantha with the perfect opportunity to incorporate the “Safety Dance” into at least one aspect of this school year.

The finished product was presented to a rather large group of newcomers in the very beginning, about three weeks before Homecoming. Of course, as time went on, the original group was whittled down to a dedicated, smaller faction who worked every day at lunch and towards the end, after school to perfect the number. The dance called for the students to work in partners, which caused some stress during preparation due to the necessity of relying on other people.

Overseen by drama teachers, Ms. McBay and Ms. Hartley, Patrick and Samantha taught the dance nearly every day in the Black Box during lunch and for hours after school before the game. The idea of the dance was to present Pitman as a unified school, bringing together students from a variety of age and social groups, so the participants were encouraged to wear all their Pitman gear or their performance outfits if they were involved in other activities that night (such as band, color guard, or cheerleading).

The night of, Drama Club was slotted to go right after the band/color guard/ cheerleading performance. The performers’ enthusiasm was unparalleled to the response from the crowd. Hopefully, Pitman will see many more Drama Club performances in future events!