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For the past 10 years, Steamboat Springs High School students have entertained packed-house audiences with the annual Dance Showcase, a student-run event that puts on display the dancing talents of dozens of local teenagers.

But complaints about the appropriateness of the dance routines have caused the Steamboat Springs School Board to question the future of Dance Showcase.

At Monday's School Board meeting, board member Pat Gleason said he's heard numerous complaints from community members about the recent three-night program.

"I think it was inappropriate," said Gleason, who attended one of last year's performances but didn't go this year. "I think it needs to clean up its act or be gone with it. I'm very disappointed it has taken the level it has the last couple of years."

High school Principal Dave Schmid told board members he thought one of this year's routines was inappropriate for a family audience, but he also emphasized the many positives of the program.

Dance Showcase began a decade ago when a student came up with the idea for a student leadership project. The program has grown steadily during the years, but has always maintained its status as a student-run event. Schmid said the responsibility and dedication needed to put on Dance Showcase is too valuable an experience for students to cancel the entire program.

The students who direct Dance Showcase typically give proceeds from ticket sales -- this year the students collected $7,000 -- to charity.

This year, high school seniors Danielle Tredway, Brittany DeGroff and Rebecca Peterson made the production their senior project. In charge of everything from choreographing dances to selling tickets and advertising, the girls spent at least part of every day of their senior year working on Dance Showcase and making it more professional than it's been in previous years, they said.

Lifelong dancers, the students see Dance Showcase as an opportunity to show off the talent of many students. More than 50 students participated in this year's program.

"There's some amazing talent in our school," Tredway said.

Cognizant of the growing number of complaints about the program, the three students worked closely with faculty advisor Lynda Stahl and Schmid to try to ensure the performances would be appropriate for a family audience.

The students pored over song lyrics with school officials, a process that led to the removal of several songs. The students and Schmid also discussed concerns about the show before the first performance.

Despite those efforts and the numerous compliments they said they've received about this year's Dance Showcase, the three seniors are troubled by the complaints, which often involve the performance costumes and the suggestive nature of some of the routines. On Tuesday, Tredway wondered whether it's possible to have a series of dance performances that don't draw a complaint from someone. The students also questioned why more complaints aren't made about the spandex uniforms worn by the volleyball team and the uniforms and routines of the school's dance team.

"We never set out to offend anyone," Tredway said. "Our goal isn't to show our stomachs and be provocative."

But troubling to School Board members is the idea that a school-sanctioned event isn't appropriate for a community audience.

"I should be able to take my third- and fifth-grade daughters," board member Michael Loomis said. His family didn't attend this year's Dance Showcase after hearing that it wouldn't be appropriate for children.

Schmid, who is retiring at the end of the school year, took much of the blame for the perceived inappropriateness of Dance Showcase.

"I have to do a better job of ensuring that whoever runs it is clear on what's appropriate and what isn't," Schmid said. "I don't want to lose it.

"I know these girls worked really hard to make it appropriate. Their efforts were true."

Schmid said he also knows there's a fine line between what's appropriate to some and what's appropriate to others.

The school will continue to look at ways to increase oversight of Dance Showcase while still allowing students to organize and direct the event, Schmid said.

-- To reach Brent Boyer call 871-4234

or e-mail bboyer@steamboatpilot.com