Last week, the CHS Dance Team went to Orlando, Florida to compete in the National Championship with the National Dance Association. They placed in first place in Medium Varsity Kick Division, along with placing fourth in Small Varsity Team Performance and placing tenth in Medium Varsity Game Day. Out of the thirty-two schools competing, CHS did an incredible job and they really outdid themselves in this competition.
Freshman Georgia Peterson, remarks on how Nationals went and how the team did.
“I was very proud of all the hard work that we put in and how it paid off in the end,” says Peterson. “I was very proud to be a part of a team that was so good at working together.”
In order for dancers to go to Nationals, they must submit a recorded video of their performance, and once they have been selected they get to compete in Nationals. After competing in the preliminary rounds, the dancers are then moved to the final round and will learn their final results. The dance team works tirelessly throughout their season and has practice twice a week, with competitions nearly every weekend.
“I started [dance] when I was four or five years old,” senior Teagan Wheeling recalls. “It does take a lot of training to get where our team is, but we definitely put in that hard work throughout the year.”
Throughout the season, the team did extremely well in their Kick Division. They competed against some tough teams such as Crown Point and Forest Park in that same division which was a challenge, but the dancers were able to come out on top. Along with the success of winning the NDA Title, the team also recently competed at the state competition receiving second place. But out of all the competitions the team has competed in, Nationals takes the cake. The team has been to Nationals a total of three times and they take pride in all the work they have done to get to where they are.
The dancers worked great as a team, and they attribute that to their success these past few seasons.
“Our team is made up of tons of beautiful dancers,” says Wheeling. “Every single one of them is amazing. I think where our team really improves is our cohesiveness to work together and feel the dance the same way.”
The dancers who competed in the Medium Varsity Kick are as follows; Ashley Bafia, Addie Egan, Lana Glazer, Lindsay Goad, Amelia Kelly, Mackenzie Kogl, Kennedy Larson, Ashley Lemon, Marley Mayor, Georgia Peterson, Teagan Wheeling, and Vanessa Vega. While dancers, Egan, Glazer, Goad, Kelly, Larson, Lemon, Peterson, Wheeling, and Vega competed in Small Varsity Kick.
Congratulations to all of the members of the CHS Dance Team and all of the hard work that they have done this season! Good luck to the returning team members for the next season as well as new members!
