Dance Team Derails Competition

The PHS dance team has never had this much success at a State competition, however coach Marla Boyd was fully aware of their potential.

“The team had not performed at any competitions as well as we coaches thought they could until State,” Boyd said.

The team soared above the competition by placing fourth in State. The firm goal for this team was placing in the top six.

But none of this could have been possible if it were not for the hard work this team was committed to putting in, Boyd said.

“The outcome could have been more unfortunate if it was not for the dancers’ work ethic,” Boyd said.

One obstacle the team had to overcome was the severe lack of dance experience coming in to this season, Boyd said.

“There are only a couple of dancers on the team who have previous dance experience. It is very uncommon for a group of girls with so little background experience to do so well at state,” Boyd said.

Dancing was not the only thing done to ready the girls for State in March 25, they also spent time getting into better physical shape.

Junior Paola Chua is a dancer who is in her second year with the team.

“In some weeks we did about 16 hours of practice, also conditioning was added this year,” Chua said.

Dance never really stops for these girls as most admitted to regularly practicing at home on their own. The amount of time they spent practicing shows the motivation in this team to improve.

Junior Daisy Gonzzales talks about the work she puts in.

“We practice constantly even at home. If you have free time you go over the routine or listen to the music or even just doing the routine with your arms,” Gonzzales said.

The dance team’s work ethic is not the only thing that makes this a special group. The girls on this team were friends previous to joining the team making it easier to work together when performing, Boyd said.

“This team’s chemistry is something that sets us apart from the other groups,” Gonzzales said.

Plenty of high school teams can be filled with drama, but on this team the connection is quite clear.

“We were all connected to each other. Any time we had problems we would all talk to each other and the coaches,” Chua said.

Next year the team will have 15 returning dancers. While a fourth place finish was a great way to end the season, this team holds promise for years to follow.

However, not everything is going the dance team’s way this year; after two years of coaching the team Boyd will not be returning as a coach.

“I would say that one word to describe the season would be progress,” Boyd said.