Technology High School is a small school, with about 80 to 100 students per grade. Due to its small numbers, Tech High is usually behind when it comes to sports. As a result, the school doesn’t have enough people for a cheerleading team, but it does have a dance team.
Tech High’s Dance Team does a lot for the school: it supports the different sports teams like baseball and basketball, provides entertainment at events, and is a good extracurricular for students with a love for dance or who want to try something new. Students on the team practice various styles of dance, such as ballet and contemporary, which opens people’s eyes to new ways to express creativity. The dance team differs from normal cheerleading because it focuses more on the dance itself rather than cheering on sports teams specifically.
In an interview with Sofia Pinaeva, a sophomore who was part of last year’s dance team, she said it was a fun experience. “I feel like we practiced a lot of different types of dance styles, which was exciting.” She followed up by saying that it was also more enjoyable because a lot of her friends were on the team. Pinaeva’s favorite part of last year’s dance team was making friends: “The social aspect of it was really fun,” she stated. The dance team was a big commitment for those involved, taking place on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays for two hours after school. “It was still really fun, so it didn’t feel tedious,” Pinaeva clarified. She also said that she didn’t rejoin the team this year because she started competitive swimming, which didn’t leave her with much extra time.
Avery Rottman, a junior at Tech High and the dance team’s choreographer and previous team captain, provided more information, stating that she hopes to see a closer bond within the group this year. “There were a lot of people from different grades, but this year we have a lot of juniors and some seniors,” she said. Rottman also said that the school’s dance team is different from a cheer team: “With cheer, you only dance on the sidelines with specifically cheer choreo[graphy], but we don’t really do cheers and we do full on hip hop and other genres of dance.” Rottman advises new members of the team and people thinking of joining to go in with confidence. She joined the dance team with no experience in dance, and she chose to be part of the group because of her friend and still found that the community was amazing. “I loved my coach and a lot of my friends were in it, so it just made sense, you know?”
Tech High’s dance team is a group of people committed to their sport. They cheer on our other teams while mastering their own at the same time. The dance team gives students the opportunity to be creative and learn new styles of dance no matter the experience they might have had beforehand. This amazing team only adds to the tremendous community of students we have here at Tech High.
