Several members of the Davis High School Dance Company will lose most of their locks next week.
On Wednesday, April 24, the girls will have their hair cut at Fran Brown Beauty School along with some of their friends and Dance Company alumni members.
The hair will be donated to a program called Pantene Beautiful Links. It will be used to make wigs and then the money raised from selling the wigs will go to a women's cancer research fund.
Dance Company President Kelli Thredgold, said each girl that cuts her hair has to donate at least 8 inches. Her hair stretches down to the middle of her back.
"My hair takes a long time to grow," the Davis High senior added. "I've been growing it since elementary school."
Many of the girls are going to cut their hair to their chin, Thredgold said.
"Quite a few of us have never really had short hair so it will be a new experience for us," she said.
Dannaea Ward is another dancer who will donate her hair. She said she felt that donating her hair was a selfless thing to do. "There's so many people out there that have cancer and by donating my hair it shows my support in helping them conquer the trial they are faced with," she said.
The dancers will cut their hair two days before their spring concert, where a dozen of the girls will perform a special dance dedicated to those who have had cancer.
"We decided to do the dance on cancer because so many of our dance company members have known someone who has had cancer," said Thredgold the dance's choreographer. "Every girl in my dance has had a close friend or family member that has had cancer."
Ward is one of the 12 that will perform the special dance. Her mother had breast cancer about five years ago and it is now in remission. She said that preparing for the dance has been an emotional road.
"It's kind of given me the reality that this is really real and the struggles that (those with cancer) have to go through are real and how emotionally wearing it can be on you," she said.
During rehearsals for the number, Thredgold brought and read to the other dancers quotes and stories of people who had cancer.
"We've all become very emotionally attached to the piece," she said. "We've gotten so emotionally connected to each other as well as those friends and family members who had cancer."
Thredgold said the dance starts off with the dancers making small, falling movements symbolizing weakness. As the music goes on, the movement builds and the dancers work together and become stronger as a group.
Thredgold said the dancers coming together symbolizes cancer patients working together to build each other up. It also symbolizes the fact that cancer makes people stronger.
The dance company's spring concert will be held at the Davis High School Auditorium in Kaysville, April 26 and 27 at 7 p.m. Tickets to the concert are $5.
Thredgold said that performing the special dance is more that just doing a dance.
"I think we all learned a lot about just how scary cancer can be and how it can be overcome," she said.
E-mail: nclemens@desnews.com