The Advanced Dance team had the opportunity to compete for the first time against twelve rivaling dance teams for the Varsity Triple Advanced State Title on Saturday, March 9. The competition took place at the Indiana High School Association at Jefferson High School in Lafayette, Ind. The team placed in the ninth and tenth division out of all thirteen schools that attended.

¨I’m so proud that the team made it to state on our first try since this is the first year that we’re competing,¨ Dance director, Chaevon Latham, said.  

The opposing teams that were represented include Lake Central High School, Homestead High School, Munster High School, Carroll High School, McCutcheon High School, Center Grove High School, Terre Haute South High School, Northrop High School, Pike High School, Plainfield High School and Kokomo High School.

The team performed selections from both the Jazz and Hip Hop genre at the competition. For the Jazz portion, the team performed ¨Heaven is a Place on Earth¨ by Belinda Carlisle. For the Hip Hop portion, they performed selections from the infamous Kendrick Lamar and Michael Jackson.   

¨Heaven is a Place on Earth’ was my favorite to perform. It was a piece that I didn’t have to stress about,¨ Junior Collette Shea said.  

The team began practicing the routines as soon as the school year started in August. The team would have to alter each routine every week to improve it in time to compete in a statewide invitational. The preparation turned out to be so challenging that some members ended up dropping out of the team.

¨We went through a lot of struggles with the practice and people, but we ended up pulling it out,¨ Shea said.  

Despite all the challenges that the group had to overcome, they still managed to find the brighter side to the situation. During practices, the team would help each other learn the harder parts of the routines. The team’s goal was to have each move memorized to the point of muscle memory.   

¨There’s a huge variety of skill sets. The girls that were better at hip-hop would teach the routines to the girls that we’re better at lyricals, and vice-versa,¨ Freshman Caroline Eads said.  

Dancing is a passion for the performers on the advanced dance team, as said by Eads. The season was filled with rigorous rehearsals, challenges, and bruises, but the successes after each invitational outweighed it all. Through this, the girls became a team and family.

¨This was a really good bonding experience for all of us. It gave us all something to work and strive for. It all paid off,¨ Shea said.