Photos: Lori Bradford dances into retirement after 27 years at Anchorage's West High

Updated: May 26, 2017 Published: May 25, 2017

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Retiring DanceWest director Lori Bradford joins fourth-hour intermediate dance class students performing “I Am My Hair” for a group photo taken during dress rehearsal for the spring show on Thursday, April 27, 2017, at West High School. (Erik Hill / Alaska Dispatch News)

West High School students and alumni bid retiring teacher Lori Bradford farewell at the spring dance show in late April.

DanceWest alumni joined students onstage or submitted video tributes to honor Bradford's 27-year career at the school. The DanceWest founder is moving on after influencing thousands of West students and developing dance and stage production curricula for other schools in the Anchorage School District.

"Throughout the years, mostly what I've done is taught students how to be good human beings through dance," said Bradford, "taught them how to be respectful and kind and supportive of each other, how to appreciate themselves and their bodies and how to be healthy and to love the arts through dance."

There have been ups and downs, she said, but "the main goal of DanceWest is all of those things."

Erik Hill

Erik Hill was a longtime photographer for Alaska Dispatch News, and before that, the Anchorage Daily News.