Vashon Dance Academy and Dance!Vashon will present their annual performance featuring over 100 young dancers, along with a few Dancing Dads, on Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the Vashon High School theater.

This year’s show is a modern twist on “Snow White,” with dance styles ranging from hip hop to modern to ballet. Artistic Director Cheryl Krown said the change is all about learning to find one’s own strength amidst false reflections.

“Throughout rehearsals we’ve talked about the central theme of the evil queen’s mirror, and how mirrors often aren’t capable of showing who we are inside,” Krown explained. “We sometimes cover up the mirror in the studio so that the dancers can feel the dance, as opposed to watching their performance of it. That idea, along with this year’s thematic goals of Snow White, has led to a number of discussions about where we find our true being, and how to listen to the voice within instead of the images reflected back to us in all the mirrors in our lives, on our phones, at school, from our peers”.

The Evil Queen will be danced by Jules Vanselow and Talia Spurlock; Snow White by Isa Sanson-Frey and Sophie Blasingim; the Queen’s Spirit by Maggie Raymond; and the Evil Queen’s Image will be danced by Hannah Spranger and Lyla Mildon. The rest of the cast will take on roles from frogs to fireflies and a forest that’s come to life.

The show was choreographed by Krown along with co-director Julie Gibson and instructors Elizabeth Mendana Shaw and Randy Ford.

— Juli Goetz Morser