By RANI CHOR
STAFF WRITER
Dance Company competed at West Coast Elite (WCE) Nationals at the Long Beach Convention Center on March 15 and 16.
This is the first time Dance has qualified for the gold elite category after its second year competing at WCE. All Male and Varsity Dance competed in various styles of dance, such as jazz, contemporary and hip hop. Medium Co-ed Hip Hop placed third in the gold division, and Small All Female Hip Hop placed fifth in the silver division. All Male qualified for the finals at the Gala, where the top schools in each division compete for the national title, and took home fourth place out of twelve teams.
According to co-captain junior Isabel Carmona, it is important to highlight the hard work the team put into the competition.
“I feel we improved greatly from last year and performed really well this year. I am proud of the improvements in technique that we have made, and I [especially] enjoyed watching All Male perform at the Gala,” Carmona saiid. “There are a lot of seniors on the team this year, so it was a really fun experience to dance with them one last time, and it was really amazing to make it into elite.”
Additionally, after receiving feedback about his performance from his peers, All Male dancer freshman Aldon Clause feels more prepared for the coming years.
“This was my first national competition, and it was really mind-blowing,” Clause said. “I feel more on top of my game now [by] knowing what to improve on for next year. I need to work on my timing and calming down through each move, because I am faster than the actual choreography.”
Ultimately, Varsity Dance member freshman Katelyn Yu feels that the practices beforehand contributed to her overall performance at the competition.
“My experience at Nationals was really fun but [also] really tiring because we had to do a bunch of dances in one day,” Yu said. “We practiced for the competition on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so I felt really prepared before we went on.”
Dance will be competing at California Association of Dance/Drill Team Directors (CADTD) State at Diamond Bar High School on March 24.