Dancing to State
Ellie Fasbender
Online Editor in Chief
Orono Dance Team has continued their three-year streak of qualifying for the state conference. The team was champions of the Wright County Conference at Hutchinson High School on Jan. 19 and from there they went on to compete at Delano high school.
On Feb. 2 at Delano high school, the dance team was awarded second place with both kick and jazz, which was the competition that qualified them to the state conference. Placing second was also a new school record according to the Orono Dance Team Instagram run by coach Sharon Forde.
The journey to state, however, was not an easy one. The team was up at early hours and put in late nights in order to work for the benefit of their team. On top of that, they had hours of conditioning and team bonding activities that all the girls participated in.
“I’m so incredibly proud of everyone on our team with how much work each person does every day in and out of practice” senior captain Maddie Larson said.
The state conference was held at the Target center on Feb. 15 and 16. Jazz was on the 15 at 2:00 p.m and kick was at 3:00 p.m on the 16. Orono performed first in the AA section of the competition on the 15 for jazz.
On Feb. 15 the Orono Dance team made Orono history when they qualified for finals in the jazz portion of the state conference. They competed against ten other teams, including Benilde St. Margaret’s, Mound, Totino Grace, Faribault, Ricori, St. Cloud Cathedral, Simley, Marshall, Austin, and Hermantown.
For the jazz portion of the conference, the team wore beautiful maroon lace costumes with flowy skirts coming off the back of their costumes.
The team came in fifth place out of the 12 teams and were extremely happy with their performance.
“I was impressed, it was a very cool experience to watch. The most entertaining part was watching the coaches during the dances, they were insane” senior Chad Mracheck said.
The next day after all the jazz excitement, the girls were up and ready to perform their kick routine. The team again was up against some tough competition.
For kick, the team performed a “through the decades” piece. The music was a mashup of popular tv shows, including the Friend’s theme song. In the middle of the performance, the team switched from their black and white costumes to bright pink and colorful costumes, to signify the time that television went from black and white to color. The judges loved it and so did the rest of Target center.
After the conference the dance team was getting direct messages and snap messages from fans and dancers, telling them how great of a job they did and how much they loved their performance.
For the second time in one weekend, the dance team made Orono history. Not only did they qualify for finals for the first time with kick, but they now had double qualified for both of the categories.
The team competed at 7:55 p.m. on Feb 16. They competed against other finalists including Austin, Benilde, Faribault, Totino Grace, and Sartel. Again, the girls danced beautifully and put everything they had into their last performance of the season.
“We left all we had out on that dance floor, and I could not be prouder of my team,” senior captain Maddix Grady said.
The team came in sixth, with Austin in fifth, Benilde in fourth, Faribault in third, Totino Grace in second and Sartel in first. The Orono Dance Team girls were “unbelievably proud of their teammates and could not have asked for a better season.”
