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Opening Assembly 2016: A D-E Beach Party!


The 2016 all-school opening assembly was a fun and festive beach-party themed gathering, this year for the first time produced primarily by students.  Featuring memorable music and dance performances along with remarks and video vignettes, the program was led by student producer/director Julia Braverman '17.  Braverman received emcee'ing help from classmates Adrian Evans IV '17 and Andrew Mount '17. Thanks also to the hundreds of neon sunglasses and Hawaiian 'lei's' handed out as D-E students, teachers and staff entered the Large Gym, it was easy to get 'ready to party' and start the new year school year in style.

The Upper School's Jazz Rock group kicked-off the assembly, performing The 1975's "The Sound" while Middle School students Emma Lagana '22, Paige McCollough '22,  Sunaya Mueller '22, Angie Victor '22, and Charlie Spitzley '22 danced along.  Angie Victor '22 and her brother Chris Victor '17 then sang a soulful version of Bill Withers' "Just the Two of Us" together with pianist Elliot Roman '17 and saxophonist Dara Panter'17.  Dramatic dance numbers from Peter Kang '17, Pierre Chaux '17, Scott Sue '17, Ben Zhu '18, Jahod Silver '18 and Ehren Layne '19 brought many in the audience to their feet.  Both an acoustice performance of the OneRepublic song "Good Life",  performed by Amanda Haroutunian '17, Julia Braverman '17 and Tim Holt '17, and a performance of "The Swan" by violininst Lawrence Chiang '18 (accompanied by Elliot Roman '17) were further enhanced with beautiful visuals of artwork by Middle and Upper School students. 

The assembly also included remarks from leaders including Head of School Dr. Rodney V. De Jarnett.  Quoting directly from the D-E School mission statement -- which includes the words "embrace diversity" -- Dr. De Jarnett first used this opportunity to remind everyone of the importance of being open to learning about all those factors that make each of us unique and different. Dr. De Jarnett pointed out that particularly during an intense  and polarizing election year, it is critical to 'leave space' for respectfully listening to different opinions and perspectives. Dr. De Jarnett continued with this theme by later speaking of how kindness and empathy are also critically important to practice, in any learning community.  Student government president Allan Festekjian '17 was also a featured speaker, recalling how he had once been a preschooler, anxious for the program to end, and now as a senior he was experiencing the Opening Assembly in an entirely new way. 

Jazz Rock closed out the assembly with their performance of Justin Timberlake's hit "Can't Stop the Feeling", while dozens of beach balls were thrown around the gym.... much to the delight of all ages, but especially our Lower School students! 

Julia Braverman and her fellow emcee's aptly closed out the program by wishing everyone a great 2016-2017 school year. 

For more photos from the Opening Assembly click here. 

Click here to view the Jazz Rock performance of The Sound.

Click here to view the D-E Dance performance. 

Click here to view the Jack Rock performance of Can't Stop the Feeling.
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Located in Englewood, New Jersey, Dwight-Englewood is a greater New York City area private school with a rigorous college prep curriculum for boys and girls in preschool through grade 12.