This image shows a scene from Willie Hinton’s “Be Moved.” Hinton is serving as the guest choreographer for Seabury Hall’s 38th Annual Dance Showcase ‘ 26. Bryan Berkowitz/Seabury Hall

Featuring more than 60 middle and upper school students, Seabury Hall’s 38th Annual Dance Showcase ’26 will feature several new dances, including a collection of musical theater numbers titled “Back to Broadway.”

The showcase will be presented Friday, Saturday and Sunday inside the school’s ‘A’ali’ikūhonua Creative Arts Center. Director and choreographer David Ward said it is “wonderfully diverse in style, mood and form — from ballet to modern, jazz to musical theater and cutting-edge dance theater.”

Highlights of this year’s showcase include new works by guest choreographers Willie Hinton from Raleigh, North Carolina, and Neisha Folks from Los Angeles.

“Every year I invite guest artists,” said Ward. “Part of my mission is to give kids an opportunity to work with other teachers. It gives them a bit of a world-class experience.”

Hinton taught at the Richmond Ballet school, the Estudio de Capezio in La Paz, Bolivia, and the University of Bolivia. As a dancer, he toured with Jubilations Dance Company and the Philadelphia Dance Company.

A former member of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Folks has performed in several Broadway shows, as well as at multiple award shows, including the Oscars.

Hinton’s piece is called “Be Moved.”

“His vision behind it is that movement can move the audience, but also move the dancer, for them to find the human connection for the purpose of their movements, rather than just being a bunch of steps,” said Ward.

Ward explained that Folks’ piece “is more of a Broadway-style piece because the whole second act is a tribute to the Broadway musical. So she did a piece called ‘Dancing Fool.’ It’s from the musical ‘Copacabana,’ based on Barry Manilow’s song. The rhythm is like a swing from the ’40s.”

This image shows a scene from David Ward’s “Graceful Edge.” Bryan Berkowitz/Seabury Hall

Vanessa Cerrito has choreographed three ballet works and a new dance for the youngest students. For her advanced class, she has restaged a contemporary ballet set to Prince’s “Purple Rain.”

“A few years back she did a whole suite of dances to Prince’s music,” said Ward. “Her finale in that suite was ‘Purple Rain.’ She set that for her advanced ballet dancers. It’s more of a contemporary piece, and these kids are some of our strongest technical dancers. It’s beautiful, really striking.”

Ward will restage one of his classic works, “Graceful Edge,” featuring a collection of spiritual music including “Ave Maria” and “Amazing Grace.”

The suite of Broadway-inspired dances will include some singers.

“I have three sets, and one is two duets and a trio that are singing live, and the others are all dance pieces,” Ward explained. “I have a male and female duet singing ‘Won’t You Charleston With Me?’ a 1920s period piece. They’re singing and dancing to a Charleston. The other duet is two eighth graders singing ‘Steppin’ Out With My Baby,’ an Irving Berlin song. It was in the movie musical ‘Easter Parade’ with Fred Astaire and Judy Garland. Then the trio is singing a kind of vibe on ‘Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy.'”

This year’s annual tribute to graduating seniors will honor Izabelle Adolpho, Maddy Mellein, Aleah Phillips, Lexi Spulding and Kyra Sidon, who have dedicated years to the Seabury Hall performing arts program.

“Every year we do a tribute to the seniors and work on it together,” said Ward. “A lot of the material comes from what they want to present. Then I form it. I figure out what’s the best sequence between them and the piece. They come up with the bulk of the movement vocabulary.”

“Some of the most satisfying parts of doing these shows is to see these kids explore new possibilities,” said Ward, who is in his 38th year of presenting dance shows at Seabury Hall. “I feel as a college prep school, we’re really opening these kids up to things they would never on their own listen to or come to know.”

The 38th Annual Dance Showcase ’26 will be at 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are $15 for adults, $12 for kupuna and $7 for students at seaburyhall.org/arts.