By Ana Jaramillo
Chloe Fournier, a senior at Lake Forest High School, has been dancing with Lake Forest Dance Academy for more than a decade.
After being on stage for years, she decided it was time to learn what happened backstage. In 2023, she approached the director of Lake Forest Dance Academy, Valerie Gonzalez, to propose an idea: building her own tap dance production as her Girl Scout Gold Award project.
"With Rhythms of Passion: A Tap Dance Experience, I wanted to create a safe space for dancers," said Chloe Fournier. Photo by Thais Photo Design.
“We had never had a student decide to take this on; it was a very exciting idea, and I was completely behind it," Gonzalez said. "At competition, we would see around 600 dance numbers a day, and only 20 of them would be tap. Out of those, 15 would be from LFDA."
Rhythms of Passion: A Tap Dance Experience, Fournier’s production, focuses on a dance that is no longer popular in Hollywood and gets little to no representation in dance competitions. Fournier wanted to exhibit this art form that often gets overlooked but has been her passion for years.
“As a tap dancer, I have experienced a lot of frustration at competitions,” she said. “Tap never scores well at competition and is truly a labor of love. You have to go in accepting defeat but still be ready to put your all out there and perform.”
Fournier has been dancing since kindergarten.
The production consists of multiple tap dancers from the area. Fournier connected with them and has continuously followed up to make sure everything will be ready for the performance on Sunday, Oct. 6. In addition to recruiting dancers, she also needed to think about the music, securing venue space, lighting, and the special floors needed for tap dancing.
“With Rhythms of Passion: A Tap Dance Experience, I wanted to create a safe space for dancers, where all they are doing is performing because they want to and love to, without having to leave brokenhearted,” Fournier said.
Fournier’s teachers hope this will motivate other students to put together their own production and learn all the different roles in the dance industry. As for Fournier, she hopes her audience comes with an open mind since “this project and show is educating the audience about tap history. So, in my ideal situation, the audience comes in with no knowledge or appreciation of tap and leaves excited and full of new knowledge.”
Rhythms of Passion: A Tap Dance Experience will take place on Sunday, Oct. 6, at Gorton Center. Please learn more here.