Isabelle Chiu
Sports Editor
After becoming national champions last season, the Mira Costa dance team looks to return to nationals again, starting with a win in its first dance competition of the year on Feb. 26 at Crescenta Valley High School.
The Mustangs placed first in all three of their main group dances in hip hop, with a score of 91.75, jazz at 96 and lyrical at 95.5. The team performed its hip hop routine to a mix of Missy Elliott songs while the jazz routine to “Yellow Flicker Beat” by Lorde. Dancers performed their lyrical routine to the song “Stone Cold” by Demi Lovato. Sophomore Flo Platt won best turns, sophomore Joie Culligan won best leaps and senior captain Emily Duong won best kicks.
Click here to see more photos from the competition
“I think we did really well for it being our first competition,” junior team captain Cami Benson said. “This is the first time we’ve competed, with JV and varsity, and we were all supportive of each other. It was a great experience and helped us figure out what still needs to be improved on.”
Duong placed first in her jazz solo to the upbeat and high-energy song “Lose My Breath” by Destiny’s Child. Benson also placed first in her lyrical solo to the song “Tragedy” by Brandi Carlile. The combined captains jazz group consisting of Duong, Benson, junior Shelby Friedman and senior Emma Svensson danced to Marina Gasolina and placed first.
“I enjoy performing my solo because I have the chance to entertain the audience and the judges by myself while showing off my technique and different tricks,” Duong said. “Different from the group dances, I do not have my teammates around to motivate me during practices or to rely on during the performance.”
Read: Mira Costa’s Dance Team’s first place performance at Nationals
To prepare for the competition season, the dance team started learning their competition dances in November. They also practice for over two hours, three days a week to perfect each group dance. The captains practice stay after the team practice to improve upon their solo dances.
“We still need to improve upon making sure all of us are hitting the right counts and that everything looks clean and together,” Benson said. “Everyone individually needs to work on emotion in their dance moves and some other little things. But overall as a group, it went well.”
Although the dance team starts practicing in the summer, the girls do not start learning their competition dance until football season is over and they finalize their basketball dance.
“It’s not until football and basketball is over that we can finally start fully focusing on our dances for nationals,” Benson said.
Judges scored routines based on choreography, technique, showmanship, costumes, precision, execution and overall appeal. Since the team performs in a school gym, it is important that they are the same distance apart because it is easy to tell when a dancer off, Benson said. Since the judges are right in front of the dancers, good formation is necessary as well.
“Because our team this year is larger than last year, it takes more work to make everything look clean and competition-ready, so we have to work harder at good timing and formation,” Benson said.
Learn more about high school level dance: SHARP’s official website
In March and April, the dance team will compete at two SHARP International regional competitions and the national completion on April 22 and 23 in Las Vegas. The team qualified for nationals with its first place finish on Feb. 26 and will continue work toward perfecting their program, and will have its second regional competition on April 1.
“Preparing the dances is a lot of work, but it’s rewarding,” Benson said. “I hope we do as well as we did last year, and our goal this year is to place first in nationals again.”
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