All-State Dance Honors Bestowed Upon Baltimore County Public Schools Students

BALTIMORE COUNTY, MD — Five Baltimore County Public Schools students have been named to the 2022 Maryland Public High School Dance Showcase. The BCPS students named all-state dancers are Mackenna Bonner, Jade Mathis and Isla Naraval of Hereford High School, and Ava Piatt of Patapsco High School and Center for the Arts. Another Patapsco High student, Jalen Johnson, was named an honorable mention dancer.

Only 25 Maryland students received the all-state award for 2022 and only four received honorable mention.

“We are very proud of our BCPS dancers who were recognized as All-State and Honorable Mention for the 2021-2022 school year,” Sonia Synkowski, BCPS dance resource teacher, said. “Their dedication to the art form and continued excellence is to be celebrated.”

The showcase event, usually held in January at Goucher College, was canceled for 2022 due to the
COVID-19 surge, but auditions were held virtually. In announcing the honors, Suzanne E. Henneman, co-chair of the Maryland Public High School Dance Showcase, noted that this is the first time these auditions have been conducted virtually and that it “revealed some silver linings.”

“The adjudicators were very impressed with the students' work and asked me to extend their accolades to the dancers for taking the time to learn, practice and videotape their audition material. There were many different choices for student spaces and the adjudicators did note and acknowledge the variety of challenges the students faced. They also enjoyed the opportunity to review each dancer individually and focus in on each dancer," Henneman said.