Dance Team Hits the Stage

Music blares through the speakers while two dancers swiftly move to the beat. The duet is full of emotion and has more meaning to it than most would believe. The dance was made by Senior Cylestte Williams, my older sister, about our dad and the things we had to face over the past year.

For the past few years Big Sky has had a dance team, all put together by different students, most for senior projects, each with different styles, themes, and character. This years team, like the previous two teams, is for a senior project. Each dancer works hard to get prepared to perform in front of their peers. Each excited about different events soon to come.

To even get a team set up at the school you have a lot of paperwork and work to do before you can even start to get your dancers. The paperwork gives information about the goal of the team and your adviser.

The process is long a couple months long. “For me to even get this team started,” Williams shares to her dancers at practice “It took me almost 3 months.”

You don’t have to be a good dancer to join the dance team. “You don’t have to know how to dance,” Williams shared at her first meeting this year. “You just have to show up to the required amount of days and try.”

Through the process of getting the dance team started and stabilizing the team every dancer has faced a lot. The dance team is not just a team, we are a family. We guide each other and help one another as much as possible.

Each Dancer on the team joined for different reasons, but they all still share the same passion for dance. “I joined the team because I love dancing,” Sophomore Andrew Faraca shares, looking at some of his fellow dancers. “I’ve been doing it ever since I was little so it sounded like a good opportunity.”

Freshman Ashton Buck adds, “I always hate having free time so I usually book myself so I have something to do.”

As the co-choreographer, I run the warm ups every practice. We jog in place, do one legged jumping jacks, and stretch, all of these help prevent injuries from occurring while dancing and makes sure everyone is properly ready to dance.

Some of the dancers have never danced before while others have been dancing for years on end. “Professionally for me I’ve been dancing since I was five,” Faraca shares. “I first started out with a cheer team because it was a lot of fun but you know I was the only other guy. But you know it has been a lot of fun.” “I dance at home,” Sophomore Adriana Kuntz says with a laugh. “That’s pretty much it. I like spinning.” Freshman Mylan Marcum adds. “I’ve been taking dance classes since I was seven years old.”

Each member has been preparing for upcoming performances all of them are excited for different dances. “For me I’d say my solo and then my duet with Angel because I kind of know her really well but I’ve never really been able to dance with her before,” Faraca shares to his fellow dance members. “I’m excited for the group as well because of the change out and themes throughout the dance.”

Buck agrees with the solo dance saying. “As everyone has said before, I am kind of excited for the solos but everyone is still working on them, but as for the duets that’s probably the dance that’s the one we have had the most time to work on.”

Even though we have had multiple people leave the team due to many reasons, we still look at them as part of the team and welcome them to come back if they decide to join again.