Mustang dance team prepares for state
Published 12:53 pm Thursday, March 19, 2009
The Redmond High School (RHS) dance team is small but mighty.
Just eight members strong, the team placed first in Hip-Hop and third in Pom at the District 2 Dance and Drill competion on March 7.
Now Lisa Heard, Stacey Townsend, Haley Gusich, Kelly O’ Donnell, Maddie Ebi, Sarah Coburn, Rashmi Sathe and Imani Steiner are headed to the state competition, March 28 at the Sun Dome in Yakima.
It’s notable that RHS didn’t even have a dance team for many years. Three years ago, a student led the charge to rebuild an additional outlet for promoting school spirit, and recruited a former RHS cheerleader and Sea Gal to help get the concept off the ground.
Current coach Shaila Brantingham has been a competitive dancer all her life. She holds a B.A.E. in Secondary Education Studies from Eastern Washington University and was a member of the Eastern Washington Elite Dance Team.
“Only 13 dancers auditioned for this year’s team, but the eight who were selected really wanted to compete, to be respected in the school,” said Brantingham. “At first, their goal was just to make it to district. They’ve been up against some serious competition. Lake Washington and Eastlake have very established, winning teams.”
Rather than causing the Mustang dancers to shy away, “that’s what drove them to want to win,” she added.
The girls have been practicing three times a week, three hours at a time. They’ll perform two dances at state, a Hip-Hop routine set to a medley of current hits and a Pom routine with the “old school” version of “Knock on Wood,” said Brantingham.
We asked what their toughest challenges might be, as they represent the Green and Gold at state.
“Most challenging is that there’s only eight of us,” Brantingham noted. “Going up against big teams, especially with Pom, the judges want you to be very visual and it’s easier to be very visual with a big team.”
As for Hip-Hop, “we can’t have any weak links, you can’t hide mistakes when there’s only eight people. Some girls have a lot of studio training, others not, but they’re working very hard to keep things tight.”
What Brantingham most wants the Redmond community to recognize is “all the strength and agility that goes into this. At the high school level, cheer or dance, in general, are not always viewed as a sport. People see a two-minute routine. They don’t see all the sweat and hours that go into it. At Redmond, we are viewed as, and treat it as a sport.”
For more information about the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association’s Dance and Drill category, visit http://www.wiaa.com/activities/dance/.
