St. Cloud, MN – While that statement is true for most dancers, the season for Minnesota high school dance teams is nearing its conclusion. Although the teams organize before the school year begins and perform at events during the fall they are considered a winter sport and their season begins in early November.
This coming Saturday, January 28, 2012, Sauk Rapids – Rice High School will be the host for the Central Lakes Conference Championships. Teams in the conference include Alexandria, Brainerd, Fergus Falls, Rocori, Saint Cloud Apollo, Saint Cloud Tech, Sartell – Saint Stephens, Sauk Rapids – Rice and Willmar.
There are two different classes of dance competition, high kick and jazz, and competition begins at 2 pm. Things look pretty bright for local teams as current rankings in high kick have Sartell – Saint Stephens number 1, Saint Cloud Tech number 2 and Sauk Rapids – Rice number 4. In jazz Saint Cloud Tech is number 1, Sartell – Saint Stephens’s number 2, Sauk Rapids – Rice number 3 and Saint Cloud Apollo number 4.
In addition to all of that the team from Sartell – Saint Stephens are the defending state champions in high kick for class 2A schools. Coach Kelly McCarney told me that “this year we want it all”. Kelly is a Saint Cloud Tech grad and was on the Tech dance team for four years. Sartell approached her 10 years ago at age 19 to coach their then non-existent dance team. So here they are knocking on the door again.
All these teams put in a lot of hard work to get here. They practice three to four hours five days a week to get every arm, foot, and toe to be doing the same thing while being judged. The choreography of their routines change constantly to tweak details large and small in hopes of receiving a better score.
Also on Saturday January 28th Saint Cloud Cathedral High School will host the annual Catholic School Dance Team Jamboree. This is a benefit event for ALS research. Saint Cloud Cathedral and others will join most of the Central Lakes Conference schools the week after, February 4th for the Section 2AA meet at Sartell – Saint Stephens High School to determine who will be going to the State Tournament at the Target Center on February 17-18th.
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