This past Friday, Mr. Harriton, the largest school event of the year, crowned a new winner, made hundreds of people laugh, and raised thousands of dollars for amazing charities. When you think of Mr. Harriton, you usually think of the jokes and talents that each male contestant brings to the stage. However, have you ever thought about who taught all the boys those Footloose-worthy moves? Or who DJ’d all of their after school dance sessions? As you will soon learn, the music and choreography presented in the show is just as important as the presence of the contestants themselves.

This year, the show’s dance numbers were choreographed by the talented Gianna Robertson, Taylor Pearl, and Megan Boni. The three girls put together both funny and impressive dances for the contestants to perform, which left the audience amused and astounded. Without their brilliant minds, the show wouldn’t have been as record-breakingly incredible as it was.

Mr. Harriton historically begins with an introduction dance to foreshadow the entertainment to come. This dance always captures the essence and energy of the contestants and even briefly showcases their talents. This year, the opening number was an eight-and-a-half minute hodge-podge of tons of songs ranging from Beyonce and Clean Bandit, to Madonna and Bruce Springsteen. Not only did these songs fill the room with an upbeat and elated mood, but also spotlighted the show’s holiday theme. Halloween-type songs such as Thriller were played; Jingle Bell Rock captured the spirit of Christmas; love songs rang out for Valentine’s Day, and much more.

The male contestants weren’t the only ones to bust out some moves. Their partners (formerly known as escorts) were able to create exclusive dance moves with them in order to stand out and individualize the performance. As their signature move, some contestants and partners simply high-fived and hip-bumped, while others attempted a stylish spin and dip. The partner dance was appropriately paired with the Daryl Hall and John Oates hit, You Make My Dreams Come True.

However, putting all of the dance and music together is not nearly as easy as it might seem. Contestant Coby Levit commented, “we, as guys, often could not always move our bodies in the way the choreographers could. We also had a tendency to always get distracted, which hindered our progress.” Noah Balistra was kind enough to add, “learning an 8:30 minute dance seemed pretty drastic at first,” however, after a lot of practice and hard work, both boys agreed, their live stage performance was “smooth sailing.” Also, it turns out that some dances were much easier to learn than others. Levit noted that once the boys found out they would be dancing to Uptown Funk, they “were all pretty excited” and “learned that dance in no time at all.”

I think we can all agree that Mr. Harriton 2015 was a huge success! From the raw talent of the contestants to the group dances, there was never a boring moment. All of the hard work that everyone put into it truly paid off to create one of the most extraordinary Mr. Harriton’s to date.

Photos by Jamie Lazarus