The dance teams from Fox and Seckman high schools will compete in the National Dance Alliance’s national championship this weekend, after coming off strong regional performances.
The Fox High Warriorettes captured two first-place trophies and the grand champions title, which is given to the team with the highest scoring performance in the competition, at the NDA regional competition on Jan. 18 at Blue Springs High School.
The Seckman High JagSwag also scored a couple of first-place finishes and took the grand champions crown in the Sugar Bears Invitational on Feb. 2 at Missouri State University in Springfield.
The Seckman High School JagSwag dance team won two titles and the grand champions award Feb. 2 at the Sugar Bears Invitational at Missouri State University. Team members are, front from left, Madison Williams, Emily Woods, Hannah Drabant, Maddison Govero and Rachel Barbeau; and, back from left, Zoey Stark, Tessa Rebsamen, Abigail Orth, Rylee Hensley and Grace Moeckel.
The NDA national championship will be held Friday through Sunday at the Hilton Orlando Resort in Orlando, Fla.
Warriorettes
At the national championship, the Warriorettes, will try to win a third straight Small Varsity Kick title.
Fox High’s varsity team also took second place in Small Varsity Game Day and finished eighth in the Medium Varsity Pom competition last year. Small teams are made up of 10 or fewer performers, and medium teams have 11 to 15 performers.
Warriorettes head coach Paige Winkler said the team’s mission at the start of the season was to try to win a third national title.
“Do I think they can do it? Absolutely,” she said. “But all we can focus on is our best technique and the things we can control.”
The Warriorettes will compete in the Small Varsity Kick, Small Varsity Game Day and Medium Varsity Pom competitions at nationals. The team took first in kick and game day and fourth in pom at the Blue Springs regionals, where its kick routine scored the grand champions title, and the judges awarded the squad the superior showmanship title for the game day routine.
Winkler said there were 20 varsity teams competing in the Blue Springs Regional, and the Warriorettes grand champions routine received the highest score out of 142 performed by varsity, junior varsity and middle school squads.
The Warriorettes varsity team includes seniors Sophia Zouglas and Jordynn Adams and juniors Ella Blase, Taylor Schwalbe, Lacey Rosenberg, Ali Key, Addison Fore, Layla Schutte, Jesi Bretz, Hannah Ball and Abbi Roberts.
Meghan Bieg is the junior varsity team head coach, and Emily Mattler is an assistant coach.
Winkler said the team’s kick routine, a Rockettes-style performance, is different than anything it had done in the past.
“It is beautiful. It is engaging. It really focuses on their control and technique.”
Winkler said a game day routine is made up of a one-minute dance to the school’s fight song, a one-minute sideline performance and a one-minute halftime performance.
“It is exciting and engaging to watch when they put that on the floor,” she said.
Winkler said the pom routine is performed to an upbeat mix of music from the 2000s.
“They get to go out and have fun with that dance, and that really shows when they are dancing,” she said. “It is nonstop from the start to the end. It takes a lot of endurance to make it through that one.”
Fox High’s junior varsity squad and the Fox and Ridgewood middle schools also had strong regional performances. The junior varsity team took first in team performance, the category it won a national title in last year, and pom, and the squad took second for game day. Fox Middle won first in pom and second in kick, and Ridgewood Middle won first in kick and second in pom.
JagSwag
At the regionals, Seckman High took first place in mix, which also is called team performance, and jazz, receiving the highest score out of 48 routines performed by 25 teams to capture the grand champions title.
The squad will compete in the jazz, team performance and game day categories at nationals. Last year, the JagSwag finished 16th in jazz, 17th in game day and 19th in pom.
Team members include seniors Hannah Drabant, Maddison Govero and Emily Woods; juniors Rachel Barbeau and Madison Williams; sophomores Rylee Hensley, Abigail Orth, Tessa Rebsamen and Zoey Stark; and freshman Grace Moeckel.
The JagSwag head coach is Hayley Garr. Natalie Mahoney and Casey Murphy are assistant coaches, and Adrienne Baumer (jazz), Bella Bahr (game day) and Bre Emigh (team performance) are choreographers.
Garr said the team’s goal is to make the finals in each national competition.
“Dance is very subjective,” she said. “We can’t control what the judges are feeling. I just try to instill in the girls that we just want to put our best on the floor and we define our wins. That may mean we want all of our turns to hit. We want to be sharper than we have been all year.”
Garr said the JagSwag performs to Pat Benatar’s “We Belong” during its jazz routine.
“It really showcases and highlights some of the individual skills and plays to the strengths of the team. It is a strong routine.”
Garr said the team performance has a Monopoly game theme, and the dancers hold up signs with phrases from the game, like “Proceed to Go.” She said the performance features moves from pom, kick, jazz and hip hop.
“I would say team performance is one of the most difficult styles to master because it has all four (styles) in it,” she said.
Garr said the game day routine has a jungle theme with the team dancing to “Welcome to the Jungle” and “Jungle Boogie.”
“We tie in all things jungle and jaguar (the school’s mascot) into it as we showcase our love for Seckman,” she said. “We are ready for that one to hit the nationals floor.”