As our school’s dance team continues through their competition season, they look forward to one special annual tradition. Each year, they host the NRG dance company competition right at our school. This event has a major impact on the team’s funding for the year, but with that, comes a lot of work from the coaches as well as dancers.
In the weeks leading up to the competition, the team dedicates many hours to making posters for the teams to know where to go and where to park. Schedules, decorations, and parent volunteers have jobs to work, whether its from selling food at the snack bar, to directing traffic and selling parking spots. Dancers and the NRG company set up the gym, prepare the dressing room, and make sure visiting teams are welcomed and have a place to go when they arrive. Most people don’t know, but the coaches handle registration, communicate with the company, and organize many things b
ehind the scenes, and unfortunately this usually goes unnoticed, but just as important as how much the dancers work.
Although our schools dance team doesn’t compete their group routines at this event, for they have to work the competition, the soloists do compete at the BCA. Starting the day of strong at 8am was Aria Molina with her jazz solo, and ending the day at 1:15 was Lily Sanchez with her contemporary solo. If a dancer had a solo, they would leave the site their working 30 prior to their solo to go warmup and get their costume on ready to perform, then after they compete, they would head back to the dance room and change then return back to their shift.
Top scoring soloists Farrah Carrey (Top overall), Anissa Ghomeshsi (First runner up), and Emily Garcia (Fourth runner up), all dominated the competition alongside the other soloists.
This competition is both fun and challenging to organize. It provides essential funding for costumes, travel, and future competitions, but it also demands teamwork, and accountability from all members. As the dancers work from 6am to 8pm, they get to watch routines from not only dance, but also cheer teams. In order to show their dedication on and off stage, the dancers have to balance rehearsals, schoolwork, and event preparation. Dance captain Amber Liu shares, “Although we have to wake up, be at school super early, and work tedious jobs, the money and experience we gain in the end is great.”
When the day of the hosted competition finally comes, the dancers open the doors, families pack the stands, music fills the room, and they start the day watching cheerleaders get on the mat with amazing routines and energy. Hosting NRG is more than simply a way for the dance team to mkae money, it’s a 3rd year tradition that they’ve done that helps not only bond our schools dancers, but also the dancers parents and attendees of this event, for they all support each other, by showcasing their routines with enthusiasm, and most importantly deduction.
