Dance Team Lives to Entertain!
by Staff
November 29, 2007
This past March the new 2007-2008 Perry-Lecompton Dance Team was formed. Five newcomers were added onto the team.
They are Juniors Sandy Robbins and Angelina Castaldi, Sophomore Breanna Robinson and Freshmen Hannah Fair and Ashley Miles.
The veterans of the team are Seniors Crystalyn Robinson, Kristin Robbins, Sophomore Grace Hupe, Co-Captains: Abby Hurd, Megan Sorrick and, Reagan Burton.
During the months of April and May, they would hold meetings to discuss what types of shirts we would get and also get sized for our uniforms. The first weekend of June the dance team packed their bags and said goodbye to their friends and family, and set off for Emporia University for dance camp.
At dance camp they each learn three dances, one as a team, and the other two they would pair off and go into groups. During dance camp, they ate, slept and dreamed dance.
That’s all they did, there was never a break in between not unless you count eating as a break. I bet everyone can say that their legs were dead by the end of dance camp. Before being on the high school dance team, some of the team have also put time into dance outside of the school. Megan and Grace have both been dancing for 13 years now and are both currently on competitive teams.
Reagan has also danced when she was in kindergarten through eighth grade, but stopped once reaching high school. Crystalyn and Breanna dabbled in some dance when they were younger but stopped. The Dance team also has some competitive cheerleaders on the team they are Kristin, Sandy, and Ashley.
Even though the rest do not dance or cheer outside of high school that does not mean they have no talent. Each girl brings a special quality to the team. Kristin’s said her favorite memory was “Gina backing out in the van at dance camp”, and when Gina said “Girls DRILL!” Abby said her favorite memory was “when Gina told us about the squirrel she was about to hit, or Angelina crumping.”
When asking the five new dancers if dance was as easy as people think. Sandy commented “When I first got on the dance team, I thought it was going to be a piece of cake. After seeing all the preparation and work that goes into every dance, I totally underestimated it. It’s very hard!” Hannah also said “Yes it is a lot harder than people think at least that is how it was for me because I thought it would be much easier but sometimes it can be quite a challenge.”
Reagan said to this question “No, not at all. It helps that I have had prior experience learning and memorizing routines, but adding in other girls and the complications involved make sit a lot more difficult.”
During dance practice they learn two dances at a time, but sometimes it can get ultra challenging and they will have three dances to learn. All of the dancers agree that they hope that they help out with school spirit.
There are different answers to how people feel before performing. Kristin said “Just at pep rallies and sometimes during basketball season. I feel like our peers judge us a lot harder than our parents.” Crystalyn commented “It depends on the dance; I get more jitters during basketball season because we are so close to the crowd.” At the end of their season they always hope it will go as good next year.
