Before winter break, Millbrook High School’s Dance Department had their annual winter concert on December 20, 2025. This concert included fifteen dances from classes, special solos and duets, and more. Millbrook dance teacher, Darius Anthony, who created and directed the concert, stated his goal with creating this concert was to “incorporate the emotions we all experience as humans.”
In order to accomplish this goal, Anthony broke up the show into three sections. The first section was titled, “Emotional Turbulence,” with the description: “Intense inner conflict and turmoil with an individual’s emotional landscape.” This section included pieces entitled “Connections Down The Wire (2A, advanced class)”, “Time is Fading, (2B beginning),” solos choreographed by Millbrook students, and more.
Senior, Micah Feurgeuson, who choreographed a solo called “The Things I Cannot Change”, which was performed during the first section of the concert, stated, “The story of my solo is about struggling to keep something together but then realizing there is nothing more you can do to hold it together. It applies directly to my life, as I choreographed my solo as a way to express my story, years of pain and suffering of trying to keep my family from falling apart, then realizing there was nothing I could do except watch. But me putting together that piece was me letting go of all my built up anger and sadness, so it’s not just a sad story in the end,” when asked about the message behind his solo.
The second section was named “Conflict” and held the description: “A serious disagreement with self or others around us.” This section held pieces titled “The Perfect Doll (1B, beginning class),” “Final rose left in the garden” featuring Anthony and Wildcat Pride Dance Team coach, Madison Morgan, and “Stay”, a small group featuring dancers from various classes choreographed by Millbrook junior, Skyla Rivera.
Rivera stated that her message through her dance follows, “how always surrounding yourself with people can still make you feel unseen, but sometimes comfort isn’t found within others, but found by learning how to be at peace with yourself.”
The final section of the concert was titled “The Power of Resiliance”; this section was backed by the description: “Overcoming hardships and difficulties while learning from those experiences.” This section of the show includes dances titled “I’m Tired (1B Beginning),” “Can’t Catch Me Now (3A, Accomplished)” and more.
“These [emotional turbulence, conflict, the power of resilience] are all things we experience or will experience throughout our lives. Trauma is something we carry with us for our whole life, and we either allow it to control us or we learn and grow from those experiences. I create emotional dance pieces that will allow the audience and dancers to connect to emotions they may keep tucked away. We all may not be blood related but we are all connected by our human experiences/emotions we deal with throughout our lifetime.” Anthony stated when highlighting the importance of the three sections within the show.
When asked about what inspires his dances and this show to come together, Anthony stated, “When creating, I take into account my personal experiences and what’s going on in the world around me. One that sticks out to me would be the piece I created for the Dance Team that deals with ICE and how it has been affecting our country as a whole. It is important to take this pain/frustration and turn it into art that still keeps what’s happening relevant as it’s still going on. We all deserve the right to be here and to be treated as equal human beings.”
It was obvious on December 20th that a lot of thought and heart were put into creating this show. Anthony’s dances and the hard work of dancers within the concert made the show very enjoyable and emotional. Congratulations to Mr. Anthony and all the dancers involved in the winter concert on their success.
