Dressed in white leotards and sparkly tutus, dancers twirled to “Snow,” sung by five vocalists dressed in red as fake snow descended upon the stage of Meyer Hall.

Musicians, dancers, actors, and poets shared the stage during the second annual Winter Arts Medley (WAM) holiday show Friday, Dec. 6. WAM represents work and performances from every art department.  

“There’s just a lot of ways that art can blend together, and I’ve always thought that the school could use more of that,” theatre senior Shane Rainsburg said. “WAM is one of those things that can act as a gateway to more inter-major collaboration.” 

WAM was originally an idea by dance dean Heather Lescaille, who then approached stage manager and theatre senior Claire Keith to help her put on the show. Ms. Lescaille organized the performance both this year and last. 

“She (Ms. Lescaille) came to me and she was like, ‘Yeah, I think we’re going to do a winter show, and it’s going to be a combination of all the majors,’” Keith said. “And I was like, ‘That’s a great idea,’ because we don’t really do a combination of all the majors (in one performance). The most we’ve ever done with combining majors is including a pit in a musical.”

Although WAM is a collaborative effort between all the departments, the combination of the performances happens during the actual show, since it was rehearsed separately in the month approaching WAM. In order to prepare the show without seeing the pieces, Keith collected information regarding lights, props, and microphones using a Google form she made for Ms. Lescaille, which was then sent out to the teachers involved with the performances. 

“We can pre-program a lot of the show before they (the performers) are even there, which is why we don’t actually have to see the pieces until the show,” Keith said.

All 20 performances in WAM took approximately an hour and 30 minutes. Keith said they had about two hours to program the show, with no after-school rehearsals due to overlapping rehearsals and upcoming shows. Instead, the students had rehearsals during school. Even with the time frame, Keith said she “feels good bringing everyone together, especially doing something that no one’s done here before.”

“The entirety of the show, from the dancing to the visual and digital arts to the communications to the orchestra and small ensembles, it was amazing that so many different performances came together so quickly,” English teacher Carmen Gallardo said.