On February 24th, St. Dominic Varsity Dance Team (SDVDT) is going to compete at state in Kansas City.
Many of the dance teams in Missouri will be attending this weekend-long competition. The competition gives teams the opportunity to compete against those they normally don’t see during their regular season. SDVDT will leave Friday night, and stay together at a hotel in Kansas City. The competition will last all day on Saturday, and return on Sunday.
“State is longer and further away, but has more suspense. It is a very large arena and there is a larger panel of judges. It can become overwhelming, but is actually very fun,” Senior Faith Hookerman said.
The competition is fun for the girls to be able to compete against new people, and more difficult competition. This competition brings new challenges for the team. The larger panel of judges means more feedback. They will be scored out of 300 points. The teams are ranked against the other teams in their division. SDVDT is very dedicated to bring home a win for St. Dominic.
“We take the two weeks leading up to state and we start really diving into extra runs of the dances, reviewing, and fixing all team cleans and vocals to just put the final touches on the dances. We do circuits to boost stamina and we make changes to gain points for choreography, technique, and high execution, Overall it’s just a major mindset and focus shift,” Head Coach Erika Bossan said.
Even though there has been a huge focus these last two weeks, SDVDT has been preparing for this competition all year. They compete at three closer competitions in order to prepare. SDVDT uses the scores and critiques from their previous competitions to know what the small changes they can make in order to improve their scores. St. Dominic has high hopes for the outcome of state.
“I think we have grown stronger as a team this year, and I am ready to see how that reflects in competition. We are against many good teams, which is always nerve racking,” Sophomore Sienna Jackman said
Many of SDVDT’s friends and family will travel to Kansas City in order to watch the girls dance. It can also be nerve wracking for the girls to compete against such stiff competition, in such a large setting. Luckily, they’ve been practicing for many months and they are very prepared for the competition. We wish them the best of luck!
Update: After a successful weekend at state in Kansas City, our SDHS team finished off their season with tremendous results. They placed 1st in precision dance, 4th place in pom, and 4th place overall in Division 3A. For our wonderful seniors, it was a sad goodbye but we are so thankful that they were able to finish out strong and for that we are so proud of them. Congrats to the entire program and we cannot wait to see what comes next for this team!
