By Archer D’Angelo

In the Second Elective semester of the 2023-24 school year there are three new electives : Set Design, Sewing/Costume Design, Step Team (Step existed last year but not last semester). In this article I summarize all 3 electives and interview the teachers leading them. So let’s get started with the least new elective, Step!

Step Team

Step is a form of dance with roots in African-American culture and recently Step Teams have become an institution in schools around the country. The style of dance revolves around percussive (stepping based) highly energetic dancing using footsteps, claps and singing. Ms Lawton, the leader of the Step Team describes it as “Rhythmic structure, rhythmic repetition, rhythmic practice and rhythmic progress.”

Sewing/Costume Design

Sewing/Costume Design is one of the two electives that are connected to the musical. In this class you can learn about sewing and make costumes that will be used in BKI’s production of High School Musical. Also if you like sewing machines I have seen that they have a LOT of them in that class. Kaiden, a student in this class, describes it by saying “Sewing class is a class where you can have fun while being quiet and trial and error is very important, also we might make costumes.” Josie, another student in this class, describes it as “a class where we learn how to use a sewing machine and we have  also been learning how to sew straight lines and squares. We are currently doing a project where we make tote bags. We will be making costumes for the ensemble for the Musical like bows and jerseys.”

Set Design

Set Design is the other musical adjacent elective. In this class you make sets and props that will be used in High School Musical. It is an art class run by Ren who described the two parts of the class by saying “In the first half of the semester we will be fabricating props and backgrounds for Mr.Ethan’s musical, High School Musical. After that we will make our own sets for Cirque Du Soleil, but not the real one, it’s just pretend.”

Then with that we have covered all three new electives and as I really enjoyed writing this I’d be happy to check out some other electives for future articles! Thanks for reading!