On Friday, May 16, the spring dance concert “Adrenaline Rush” opens in the Williston Theatre. Presented by the Williston Dance Ensemble, the performance will feature 13 pieces in total, a combination of guest, student, and faculty choreography. The show will also run on Saturday, May 17, and both shows start at 7:30 pm.

The dance director, Laurel Raffetto, says, “We have a couple of new things going on with this spring’s performance. Our Guest Artists, Marlene Rye (local painter) and Beth Znosko (Artistic Director of Clark Dance Theatre) are teaming up to integrate their passions for painting and dance. Their work with the Dance Ensemble this spring has prepared the dancers to perform a structured improvisation that will inspire a new painting each night, done on stage by Marlene. The plexi-glass she will be painting on is larger in scale, 3’ by 6’, so is sure to be seen by the audience well.”

There will be three faculty pieces, five student-choreographed group pieces, and four solos. Student choreography is by Calvin Ticknor-Swanson, Gabby Record, Jessie Schuhlen, Henry Lombino’14, Brittany Collins’14, and Meredith Westover’14. There will also be a special guest performance by Tory Kolbjornsen’14. As a new feature this year, there will also be one children’s dance.

Raffetto says that during children’s dance, “The Dance Ensemble dancers invite the children in the audience to come on stage and dance with them to ‘Let It Go’ from the movie Frozen! This is sure to be a treat for the audience, and hopefully we’ll have a lot of brave little ones who want to perform and move with us.”

There has been hints that there also will be some surprise guests, and the Dance Ensemble encourages everyone to come find out what will happen. Tickets are on sale now online at www.williston.com/dancetickets and tickets are free for students and teachers and general admission is $10. Tickets sell quickly, so reserve them as soon as possible.