Mesquite Toes Dance Troupe Taps In The Spring Season

By BOBBIE GREEN

The Progress

The sounds of show tunes, and tapping feet filled the air at the Mesquite Community Theater on Friday night, April 14, at the Spring Spectacular performance of the Mesquite Toes. The show also included performances from their dancing friends: The VVettes and Mesquite Lifelong dancers.
Celebrating their 20th year, the Mesquite Toes senior dance troupe are still dancing their way into the hearts of the community.

It is hard to define a favorite tune or dance performance from the audience, there were so many. First time attendees Bill and Judi Coffin said they could not name a favorite routine; they were enjoying them all.

There were many highpoints throughout the performance. Some quite unique specialties. Like “Born to be Wild,” with the use of props and volunteer wild guys, that brought cheers from the audience.
“Colors of the Wind” brought a new element to the dance troupe, they took off their tap shoes and floated about a misty stage with a modern dance routine.

The Mesquite Recreation Center Life Long dancers did Elvis proud with their rendition of “Jail House Rock” to loud applause from the audience.

The Virgin Valley High School Vvettes drill team did a short-regimented routine that displayed their team skills. John Norwig and Swider sailed through beautiful ballroom dance routines to “Stayin Alive,” and “Wind Beneath My Wings.”

A solo performance by Linda Villanueva kept the audience mesmerized with her overt passion lip-syncing to “Whatever Happened to my Part,” from Spamalot. More cheers from the audience.
The evening’s Master of Ceremonies, Pericles Rellas, as loved by the audience with his corny jokes and all. Rellas made costume change time as entertaining as the show itself.

Lesley Muir and Terry Rosenberg came from Ivins and Santa Clara just to see this show. “Such an inspiration, we loved every minute!” said Muir.
Bill and Donna Magnuson could not name a favorite routine, they were so impressed with all of them. “How can they remember all the choreography?” Donna said.

Mesquite Toes Director Marge Westwood was spot on when she told the Progress to watch for the grand finale of the show. The Toes version of “76 Trombones” was indeed impressive. The choreography and the implementation were wonderful. The gold costumed ladies and the tux dressed male band leaders gave the audience an over-the-top ending to the show.

The choreography for all the routines improves with each show. The sound and lighting crew played a big part in creating an enjoyable production and should be credited with the rest of the technical crew, stage managers and volunteers that helped enable this production.

The audience left with smiles, thanking the dancers for the show with admiration and wonder how do these senior ladies and men do it? After all, true to its name, the whole show was spectacular.