By Erika Moreno / Delta Staff Writer 

A dance major at Missouri Valley College, Dashonda Johnson, is a student assistant coach for the dance team.

She started dancing with the Repertory dance ensemble in Fall 2018. Before she came to Missouri Valley she danced on an indoor football professional dance team called the Dodge City Gunpowder Girls, for three years.  

The Repertory Dance Ensemble had their annual dance concert. The concert consisted of the members in the Dance Ensemble which included, Courtney Davis, Lakyn Lee, Simonetta Marangoni, Amber Newsom, Miyu Shito, and Chayla Stephenson. Although the concert was Dashonda Johnson’s senior show it still consisted of other dances choreographed by Janie Morgan and Dash’s classmates. 

Her dance  teacher Janie Morgan thinks Johnson has improved a lot. If you look at the intricacy of Johnson’s movement in all of the pieces are very complex. Especially the Jazz and Hip Pop. Morgan thinks that Johnson has a natural instinct in choreography that’s always been present but it’s definitely been hiding.

“In the series of solos, you can actually see the maturity of her choreography as you’re watching the show,” Morgan said. 

Amber Newsom a Dance major and a classmate and teammate of Johnson thought that the show was a good way to express different stories.

“I think it was so much fun,” Newsom said. “I usually dance lyrical, I’m more comfortable. However I feel like in Dash’s choreography I was able to be more comfortable doing like upbeat dances.”

Newson danced one of Johnson’s solos named Shattered. She feels like she could really connect with the lyrics and the movement. 

Michelle Monetti a friend of Johnson who came to visit Johnson just to watch her senior show was thought it was very beautiful.

“I love the different styles that were in the show.” Monetti said.

Johnson believes that everything involved in the show meshed well together, with all the different styles. However, Johnson says that the process of choreographing for all these different individuals was very hard.

The first five pieces of her senior show which were the solos weren’t as hard because they were pieces that she had already choreographed before. She had issues coming up with some dance moves.

However even though hip pop is one of her main styles she had a lot of trouble coming up with moves for her hip hop routine. She had a lot of blocks in her head, she didn’t know what to do, she didn’t know which song to choose. However at the end she got it done. 

Johnson loved seeing her choreography on other people.

“On the solos I held tryouts to see who would give it the essence that I wanted, it was nice to see that come through, they either did it better than me, matched my energy or brought out that essence that I love and that’s why I chose those people,” Johnson said.