AEHS Winter Jazz And Dance Concert

By Emily Markin

On Dec. 12, 2025, Albert Einstein High School hosted its annual Winter Jazz and Dance Concert. This event showcased dancers from seven curricular classes and one extracurricular group, as well as musicians from two curricular jazz ensembles. 

Collectively, the dance groups performed 13 dances, and the jazz ensembles performed 10 songs. Each year, the dances performed during this concert follow a theme. This year, each dance was inspired by a different tarot card. 

When Hannah Kerr, dance director, was deciding the theme for this concert’s dances, she aimed to find a theme that encapsulated the different stages and experiences of life. So, the tarot cards theme is “not about reading your fortune as much as, like, these are big things that happen in your life,” Kerr said

This theme was particularly evident in one of Dance Company’s dances, entitled “Fissure.” This dance portrayed the strength tarot card well, with strong movements within the choreography and war cries within the music. The dance also included lifts, which showcased the dancers’ strength individually and as a group. There were moments of chaos where each dancer was doing something different, but also powerful phrases of unison that tied the dance together. 

The dances within the concert included a lot of student influence. “I always have students include some of their own vision—their own creativity in there,” Kerr said. Students were able to add to choreography during class and learned how to create dance pieces, not just perform them. 

Four seniors, Gisela Espinoza, Campbell Goldston, Diego Ochoa Diaz, and Savanah Sanchez, had self-choreographed pieces included in this concert. Each of these dances was beautifully choreographed and performed, highlighting the talent of these student choreographers and their dancers. 

Following the final dance that included all of the dancers, a 15-minute intermission took place. Afterwards, the jazz musicians took the stage. Led by Greg Casement, instrumental music director, the Jazz Lab Band and Jazz Ensemble each performed five songs. 

“My favorite song of the whole concert would probably have to be ‘El Abrazo,’ and the reason why is not because it has a bunch of flashy drum parts… but because of the message that the song has behind it, the message of the music,” said senior Nestor Fabritz Lugo, a member of Jazz Ensemble.

Just like how the dances told stories around the theme of tarot cards, the jazz pieces were also able to do the same. “El Abrazo,” composed by Alan Baylock, told the story of a young man’s life, with the beginning and end representing his heartbeat as he came into and left the world. The middle portion of the song represented his youthful life with colorful and moving melodies.

During another one of the Jazz Ensemble’s pieces, “My Funny Valentine,” composed by Richard Rodgers and arranged by Dave Wolpe, a guest joined the group onstage. Junior Nikkishia Appiah sang as a guest vocalist alongside the Jazz Ensemble musicians. “I love collaborating. We do stuff with Salseros, we do stuff with different dance groups, and we do stuff with vocalists,” Casement said.

This collaboration between the arts community at Einstein is beautiful to see, bringing different forms of art and artists together to create something new and showcasing the talent and diversity of Einstein’s artists.