Image courtesy of Logan Cain (‘25)

The CSD Dance crew poses at the Charlotte-Douglas international Airport before flying to New York City during the summer of ‘23.

Over the summer, in the heat of June, CSD’s dance classes journeyed to New York City for a five-day trip. While in the Big Apple, the dance team visited the Museum of Broadway, danced in master classes, attended a Broadway show and visited the icons of NYC.

Students taking the dance concentration had the opportunity to sign up for the trip at the beginning of the 2022-2023 school year and twenty-six students jumped at the chance.

Teachers Faith Mottershead, Sara Keys, Beth Knight and Kim Hotcher served as the chaperones and on June 22nd the trip commenced as the group boarded the northbound plane. 

The schedule was fast paced and exciting. Once the group landed, they hopped on a bus, quickly dropped their bags at the Wyndham New Yorker Hotel then explored the city.

One of their first stops was Times Square.

“We walked around – checked out the M&M store – and hung out for a bit. It was pretty neat to see it in person,” said Logan Cain (‘25).

The next day, after resting from the travel day, the group had three activities on the docket.

The first was the Museum of Broadway. This museum, which opened the previous September, chronicles the history of Broadway through costumes, vintage photos, props, interactive exhibits and mock sets of past shows.

“It was my second time going,” said Mikayla Chartier (‘25). “My favorite part was seeing all the neat costumes on display.”

After grabbing lunch, they went to the Edge Observatory. The Edge offers a 360-degree view of NYC from a one hundred story high observatory and, even though clouds blanketed much of the cityscape, Cain still enjoyed it:

“It was still breathtaking and neat in its own way,” he said.

To close out the first full day in New York, the dance team went to a swing dancing show.

“It was super fun!” said Chloe McKito (‘25). “They danced improv sometimes and sometimes it was planned and both were great and then we got to go up and dance with them at the end of the show.”

The second full day was filled with four dance masterclasses. Ninety minutes of professionally instructed ballet transitioned to another hour and a half of tap dancing. In between the first half of the day and the second the group made a quick run to Whole Foods before heading back to the studio for contemporary and hip-hop.

“If I had to pick a favorite then I’d say hip-hop but contemporary was neat, too,” Logan Cain said. “Both the hip-hop and contemporary guys hadn’t started dancing well into their teens…it was encouraging to hear because they started late and now are professionals. Because for me I’ve never taken studio classes and neither did they and look how they turned out.”

The last full itinerary day was both McKito’s and Cain’s favorite.

The morning began with another masterclass with Brandon Cameron, the Broadway dancer was the understudy for Orpheus – the main role in Hadestown.

“He taught us a little piece to a phrase in a song called ‘Livin’ it Up’ with Persephone from the Hadestown show,” said Cain. “About two minutes of it and it was awesome.”

Once the class ended, Cameron joined the dance group for lunch before they all attended Hadestown. 

“It was my first time watching a Broadway show and I absolutely adored it,” said McKito. 

After the show ended, Brandon reconnected with the dancers and introduced them to the cast. A highlight occurred when the team met Ava Maria Noblezada (who played Eurydice) and found out she was from Charlotte.

“It was super cool to talk to her. Then, right before we left, Ms. Faith had talked to me and Austin Byrd (‘26) and told us we should ask Brandon for his number to get some connections going if we ever thought about dance in the future. So we went up to him after the show and I now have a Broadway dancer’s number,” Cain said with a tickled smile and laugh.

June twenty-sixth was departure day. The group packed their bags, made a quick stop at Central Park then headed to the airport. 

Checking bags and TSA went smoothly but then things got interesting as the dancers sat in front of their gate.

The first delay came because of bad weather in Charlotte. The flight was delayed seven times in total before getting completely canceled due to severe storms and lightning. 

This left the four chaperones scrambling to find a flight for the thirty Spartans. At first, returning close to schedule looked bleak. Every flight agent said the earliest plane with enough room for the entire group wasn’t available until four days later.

“At first I got worried about work because I had a shift the next day and I panicked a bit,” said McKito.

Eventually, after waiting in lines for nearly four hours, the airline found a solution. 

“They said for large groups of underaged kids without their parents they could actually charter a flight specifically for them. We qualified as that and so we got a flight specifically for us,” said Cain.

While the chaperones finalized flight details, the dancers wandered the airport.

“We were playing in the airport playground, the ones for like five-year-olds, and you could tell we were all pretty delirious,” said Cain. “I was so tired that when the shops opened at like four I forgot the pin to my debit card and couldn’t remember it for the longest time.”

Cain wasn’t the only tired traveler. Sometime around 2 AM, the chaperones realized that they were four tickets short and there wasn’t enough room on the flight because once all the tickets for the group were secured, the flight was opened to the public. 

After another hectic hour, seven-thirty on June 27th to be exact, the entire group of thirty boarded the plane. The two hour flight back to Charlotte seemed anticlimactic.

Even though the trip was full of craziness, it was full of laughter and memories that will never be forgotten. The CSD dance team hopes to go again in the summer of 2025 and Cain, along with many others, are already clamoring to go back.