One team, one dream” is this year’s 2012-2013 Orono dance Team motto. The team has high expectations and high hopes for the season.
The Orono dance team is lead by senior captains Anna Anderson and Abbey Saville, and junior captains Abby Elmore and Chloe Richey. The dance team is coached by Jackie Lee and is assisted by Anna Hankel, Colleen Knight, and Marisa Fair.
The team is ready for this year and have set their goals high. “Our goal for this season is not only to win but to dance to our best ability every time we perform,” said junior captain Abby Elmore.
Like most high school teams, the dance team is split into varsity and junior varsity. There is a JV jazz team and both high kick and jazz varsity.
“Jazz is a form of dance that focuses more on leaps, jumps, and turns,” said Anderson.
“High Precision Kick is all about kicking. It’s a tighter and stronger form of dancing where the height of your kicks and how many you do affects your score,” said Anderson. Ament put it in a simple way also, “Kick is more sharp, and as you can probably tell by the name, we do a lot of high kicks.”
There are 36 girls on the team altogether. Depending on the team there are 14 girls on varsity jazz and 22 girls on varsity kick. “
It changes every competition,” said Anderson. “Not all girls dance at once. We have alternates that fill in when girls are injured, or sick.”
“The rules for dance competitions are quite specific. “Our team has 19 JV Jazz dancers, 12 varsity Jazz dancers, and 20 varsity High Kick dancers that perform at each competition. A dancer can be on JV Jazz and also be on varsity High Kick. Per MSHSL rules, Jazz dances can have a minimum of 6 dancers performing and a maximum of 26. High Kick can have a maximum of 34 dancers,” said Lee.
“There are either 5 to 7 judges,” said Saville. “For each type of dance, there’s different categories. The judges give you points out of 10 [1 being the worst, 10 being the best] in around 15 different categories from technique to choreography. Then each judge ranks the teams from first to last.”
“Judges are always different at each competition and are certified through the Minnesota State High School League and JAM [Judges Association of Minnesota]” said Lee
The team is ranked and judged on technique, creativity and choreography. “Everything we do needs to be perfect, and we can never let any of our technique down. We need to smile big, keep every muscle in our body fired throughout the whole dance, have intriguing choreography, dance as one [everything is the same] and other little things when we add technique into the dance,” said Ament. “Our coaches always say that the outcome is 70 percent in our control and 30 percent out of our control. Meaning that how we perform affects our score, but it also depends on what the judges are looking for and how other teams did as well.”
The dance team performs at halftime at football games, and halftimes at basketball games. They also perform at school events, like the Winterfest show.
The Orono dance team dances in the Wright County Conference and two semi-conferences help decide where they will fall in the Wright County Conference standings. They also compete in invitationals around the metro. On Dec. 15, both varsity and JV Jazz teams placed first and varsity High Kick place fourth at the Maple Grove Invite. On Jan. 10, both varsity and JV Jazz teams place first in their conference meet at Waconia. On Jan. 12 at Mound, both varsity and JV placed third, with varsity Kick placing seventh.
The team’s upcoming competition is Jan. 19 at Mound Westonka. Orono is in section 3AA and will be competing for the section championship on Feb. 2 at Waconia High School.
The Orono Dance Team hasn’t been to state since 2009 in High Kick and since 2006 for Jazz. “I think there is a chance for our team to make it to state. We have been working so hard, and have already come so far,” said Elmore. “We can, and we will [make it to state],” said Anderson.
Richey added,“I think that we could definitely go to state. We just need to believe in ourselves and think about our motto ‘one team, one dream’.”
Pete Makarov is the Sports Editor for The Spartan Speaks
