Menlo Dancers Upcoming Performances at Stanford Basketball Games

Menlo%E2%80%99s+dancers+%28Knight+Dancers%2C+Midknights%2C+and+Knight+Life%29+before+their+halftime+performance+at+Valpo+Bowl.+Photo+courtesy+of+Lynda+Marren.

Menlo’s dancers (Knight Dancers, Midknights, and Knight Life) before their halftime performance at Valpo Bowl. Photo courtesy of Lynda Marren.

Caroline Frantz, News Editor

The Menlo Knight Dancers, Midknights and Knight Life are set to perform at the halftime of two of Stanford’s men’s basketball games in February. The games are against University of Southern California (USC) and University of California Berkeley (Cal), on Wednesday, February 13 and Thursday, March 7 respectively, and take place at the Stanford Maples Pavilion, an arena that seats almost 7,300 people.

Menlo’s Knight dancers usually perform jazz, lyrical, and contemporary dances according to Knight Dancer Kate Hammond. The Midknights are similar but are dancers with less experience than the Knights, and Knightlife is Menlo’s hip hop dance group that also uses some acrobatic moves. Menlo’s dancers got this gig through Athletic Director, Earl Koberlein.

As part of the agreement, the dancers still had to buy tickets to the games, just at a discounted price. In order to perform, Upper School dance teacher Jan Chandler had to buy around 25 tickets. Though it is unclear whether the Knights will be the only performers during halftime, Stanford Athletics Executive Grace Flynn told them that their dance should be around three minutes, according to Chandler.

Chandler and Knights student captains, seniors Izzy Banatao and Kayla Zamanian, think that their dance at the annual Valparaiso (Valpo) Bowl football game against Sacred Heart was the reason they are able to perform at these games. “I think Stanford reached out after [a representative]  saw our dance at Valpo,” Zamanian said. “That was one of the best dances we’ve ever done.”

The dancers think that this would be a good opportunity to expand the reputation of the Menlo Dance program. “This performance opportunity has been one of the most exciting for us as dancers and high school students because we have the unique opportunity to reach a much larger audience at a collegiate sporting event,” Zamanian said. “This type of opportunity doesn’t come along that often, and we feel so lucky to be able to put on our best show at games as big as Stanford vs. USC and Stanford vs. Cal.”

The dancers plan to use the same dance as Valpo for their halftime performances. “The music is a 2000s remix,” Zamanian said. “It has some Britney Spears songs like ‘Toxic’ and ‘When I Grow Up.’”

Although Menlo dancers have performed off campus before, this is one of their biggest events in a while. This will be the performance with the largest audience for our dancers yet this year. “Knight dancers used to go off [campus] and perform more,” Chandler said. “But that was before we were competing with lots of other extracurriculars.”

As of now, neither game is sold out, and there are still tickets available to go support Menlo dancers. Later in the year, Menlo’s annual Dance Concert takes place on March 14-17, but the Knight dancers’  2000s-themed dance will only be performed at these two Stanford games.