The dance competition season started back in late October with their first practices. The first two Sundays of their practices, they had four, hour-long practices. The dance competition teams have been working hard from the very beginning for their competition season.
Last year there was just a varsity competition team. This year they now have both a junior varsity and varsity competition team. “It’s been a bit of a handful with two teams competing. My volunteer coach Ms. Natalie Smith has been a great help,” Head Coach Nina Smith said. This year, the volunteer coach Natalie Smith, who is also the head coach Nina Smith’s sister, choreographed a dance for the junior varsity competition team.
Being the coach of a dance team is not always referring to working hard with the team about their dances, but it’s also over working with the team on their mental health. “Besides practicing and cleaning, we’ve been talking about mindset and staying positive no matter the circumstance this season,” Smith said. It’s good to know if someone is in dance, it’s not all about winning all the time, but it’s also about having fun and to have a good attitude even when a team doesn’t get the scores they might have been hoping for.
Even though practicing constantly can be a lot of tough work sometimes, the girls on the team still have a lot of fun, especially at the dance competitions. “During award ceremonies, they play throwback songs that we can all dance to,” Senior Morgan Jones said. Having fun songs played during an awards ceremony can be a good way to relieve the stress from the dancers right before hearing what place they get in their specific categories.
Last dance competition season, the varsity dance team competed at state and planned to hopefully do so again. “My plan is to continue to do our very best and improve our scores with each competition,” Smith said. “If we make state again, it will be a welcomed surprise.”
If anyone is interested in going to a dance competition to watch the teams perform, their next competition is Feb. 3 at Highland High School in Highland, Il.
