The junior and senior Golden Girls flew out to Orlando, Florida to compete in the National Dance Alliance (NDA) competition. They competed from February 14-16, and placed 7th in Team Performance and 9th in Military. Prior to competing, the team felt generally hopeful for this year’s competition.
For first-time national competitors like junior Abby Vandaveer, it’s a fresh and exciting experience.
“It’s normally just for juniors and seniors,” Vandaveer said. “So now that I’m a junior, I’m excited to be able to go.”
However, a limited number of people being able to go came with its drawbacks for coach Victoria Gosselaar, as she had to rearrange many of the dance routines.
“The routines that we’ve been performing with all of our girls, we have to fix them in the short weeks we have,” Gosselaar said. “We only have three weeks to prepare, and we have to basically take a routine that was made for 29 people, and make it look the exact same with only 19.”
This can result in long practices full of heavy preparations, according to senior Emily Dore.
“We come to school every day at 6:40 to practice, and we practice until the end of first hour,” Dore said. “We have to go over choreography, clean choreography, run the dance multiple times.”
The competition is fierce this year, as the Golden Girls strive to have a better run during this year than their previous national competition.
“We typically do very well at nationals,” Gosselaar said. “Last year we fell a little bit short, so this year, we’re ready to come back and take back our spots as top three.”
This can lead to feelings of anxiety in some dancers, like senior Kylee Vignery.
“I’m most nervous about placing in finals, because last year we didn’t make it to finals,” Vignery said. “But this year we’re already in finals, but I hope we’re in the top half of that.”
Many of the girls also participate in dance outside of school, so the schedules for nationals can conflict with different dance studios.
“I also teach at my dance studio, and we have some outside practices on Thursday, so I’ll find people to sub in for me,” Vandaveer said. “And then, I also have to make sure that I’m managing our recital routines to make sure that I know the recital routines and also know the national routines.”
With the stress of performing well at nationals looming over many of the dancers, alternate dance studios can be a form of escapism for some.
“I dance at Gaby Lucas House of Dance. And it’s different but similar to school dance because it’s a lot less stress on you, because you’re building connections with all of these people,” Dore said. “And it’s just a very inclusive studio, so you’re very close with your class. And I feel like school dance is a lot more stress on you, in perfecting choreography, being all the same.”
This doesn’t mean the trip is all stress, though. After the competition, the dancers get to enjoy a day of fun.
“The last day after the competition is over before we come home; just as a reward for all of our hard work, we spend a day at Disney.”
A trip this large, however, is naturally going to be more expensive.
“The flight, usually, is somewhere between $400 to $500,” Gosselaar said. “And then the package for nationals on top of that, with their food and with their ticket to Disney and entrance to the competition, that can be anywhere between $1,000 to $1,200.”
This means that, in order for the dancers to travel, they must raise their own funds.
“We are responsible for our own flights and hotel rooms, but we also do fundraisers to help pay,” Dore said. “This year, we did bingo bingo cards where every day, we drew a number, and that person would get a gift card. And then, we also did a 50-50 raffle at our Miss Kansas competition. That helped us to pay for our trip to nationals.”
With every last preparation in place, coach Gosselaar felt confident in how well the Golden Girls could do.
“I really feel like last year’s nationals was something that made me feel really invigorated to think about new ways to do things,” Gosselaar said. “So we’ve added a lot of things this year, and I feel really ready for them to go and show the world what we can do.”
The feeling is mutual for the dancers, like senior Addison Ham.
“I just think this year, with our military routines, we’ve really just taken it up a notch,” Ham said, “And proved to ourselves that we are South, we are the Golden Girls, and we’re here to win.”
