PHOTO PROVIDED BY JUSTIN YEH By BELINDA KUO
STAFF WRITER
Dance Company competed at its annual California Association of Dance/Drill Team Directors (CADTD) state competition at Diamond Bar HS on March 24.
The CADTD state competition is the last competition for Dance’s season. Varsity Dance and All Male competed in a variety of styles, including hip-hop, jazz and contemporary. Out of the group dances, Small All Male placed second and Medium Co-ed Hip Hop placed sixth.
According to head coach Karen Ayres, attending State allows dancers to see the progress of the dancers from the school year.
“Attending State is like the Superbowl. You start off at a level where the kids slowly learn the basics and progressively learn more and [gain] confidence,” Ayres said. “By the time they get to State, they are competing with [other dancers] at their level to give them a fair chance of execution, improvement and excellence. The energy from that is positive for them.”
In addition, co-captain junior Isabel Carmona explains how the team prepared for competition.
“CADTD state came one week after our big [West Coast Elite] nationals competition, so it was really hard to fit in practice times for that and prepare for our [upcoming] Spring Show,” Carmona said. “The most difficult challenge that we faced was time-management and keeping our dancers well-rested and ready for the competition on Sunday.”
Furthermore, All Male member freshman Ronald Lu explains his special experience at the competition.
“I loved that we had all this energy because it was the last [competition]. [All Male] was focused and we got things done,” Lu said. “It felt like any other high school competition, [except] it was the last one, so we had to put our game faces on.”
Dance is having its annual Spring Show in the gym on April 10.