Ken Roberts
Sports Writer
After having a fairly successful opening at West Albany, the girls dance team now gets down to the business of perfecting their state routine.
The girls have set some basic goals as they attempt to compete successfully at the state competition. Be a team, work hard, have fun, and win some trophies. Last year they were sixth at state. This year they have a young team with only one senior.
“Our biggest challenge is to be a team,” said coach Traci Gagner. “We met at a team breakfast to work it out.”
To help with that team-building, five girls serve as captains. They each work with a line of girls as well as help make decisions directly affecting the performance such choreography and choice of music. The lone senior, Kristen Belveal, is one of the captains, along with juniors Alisha Basham and Kymi Howe and sophomores Hayley Cole and Chelsea Gagner.
The Huskies will compete in the large group division of 3A and combine three different categories, lyrical ballet, jazz, and hip-hop, into their routine centered around a vacation theme.
The whole routine is one that the team as a whole must buy into.
“The girls have to be happy with the music,” said Gagner. “We usually discuss it with the captains.”
The team has three competitive performances, one in January and two more in February. They start with three minutes of their routine and work their way up to the full 6 minute performance.
It makes their appearances at the different competitions more interesting.
“The audience waits for something new,” said Gagner. “Nobody wants to show their entire routine.”
Every performance gives the coaches an idea of which dancers can perform at the state level.
So one of the goals is to always build the technique level of each team member in all the basic dance movements. With the selection of 23 girls on the team, there is no guarantee that they will dance at state. Some may only dance in part of the routine.
With the subjective nature of the judging at the competitions, all that Coach Gagner and Amy Belveal, her new assistant up from the junior high team, can expect is for each dancer to give their all and learn something from it.
“It’s so judgemental,” said Gagner. “It is always our goal to do the best that they can do and be happy with that. It’s not like I can say go out and take first.”
What they do get from the competitions is a tape of comments from the judges on what to do to improve. And improvement is what they concentrate on and all the coaches can ask for.