Page 13 - Demo

Take Center
Stage
Story By Logan Saldana Photos By Molly Clark
The Edgewood Arrowettes fly to the top.
he Edgewood dance team, the Arrowettes, have done it again. For the second year in a row, the Arrowettes qualified for the National Dance Alliance (NDA) High
School Nationals.
The Arrowettes are made up of 10 Varsity and 9 Junior
Varsity dancers, from 9th to 12th grade. These dancers have worked hard to get themselves where they are now. The dancers added extra conditioning and even more technique to their practice schedule. With all of the hard work finally seeming to pay off for the team, the announcement of the bid for Nationals was a very uplifting moment for them.
“When I found out that they had received the bid to Nationals, I was extremely proud of them and so excited for them. I know how much hard work the team had invested and how badly they wanted it. Everyone was in tears when the bid was announced,” Coach Sarah Renner said.
Here they will compete against around 20 other teams in their division. Nationals consists of three days of competition. During these three days, dancers will compete for the title of National Champion and to receive those precious jackets. The first day is the preliminary round, this initial performance will determine whether or not the team
advances on. The preliminary competition takes all of day 1 and half of day 2. If they do advance they will compete either the evening of day 2 or anytime on day 3. The winners are announced at the ceremony on the evening of day 2 after competing has concluded. Nationals is held at the Hard Rock Live at Universal Citywalk. The dancers stay at one of the 6 Universal hotels while competing. The Arrowettes will be competing with a total of 5 routines. 3 will be Varsity and 2 Junior Varsity.
“Varsity will compete in Varsity Team Performance (which encompasses 30 seconds of each of four styles including Jazz, Pom, Hip Hop and High Kick), Varsity Jazz and Varsity High Kick. JV/Jr. High will compete in Jr. High Team Performance and Jr. High Jazz.” Renner said.
With Nationals last year in the books, the Arrowettes have been working very hard to not only get their routines down, but to perfect them. Part of this perfecting process, or what the dancers call “polishing” or “cleaning up”, is conditioning, lots of practice, and even some technique skills. The girls can be found working their dances every Tuesday and Thursday after school.
“We are adding technique to the team’s repertoire to increase our level of difficulty this year. We have incorporated more conditioning into our practice schedule to build endurance so the dancers have enough stamina to maintain energy throughout our routines, which are physically demanding from the first beat of music to the last,” Renner stated.
Raising approximately $500 dollars for 19 dancers is not always the easiest thing to do. The Arrowettes hold fund raisers all the time to help reach this goal. The estimated amount of $500 each covers registration fees, lodging, costuming, and meals. There are several upcoming fund raisers to support the Arrowettes including a Chick-fil-A© night. The girls and their parents all work very hard to get sponsors. Sponsors will donate money to the team and help them get one step closer to their goal of Nationals.
“This is an incredible opportunity for this team and the dancers are so excited to be able to represent Edgewood at this prestigious National event again this year. We are grateful for the support of the Edgewood Administration and Staff as well as the Edgewood Community as a whole,” Renner said.
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