Team Feature: Lockport

Their coach ran practice with a baby on board. Here’s how she hopes to connect a moment of glory from March, 2000 to January, 2017.

by Norm Ramil, 8 Count Audio chief.music.officer & dance.fan

Walking up the stairs into the gym at Lockport’s central campus is a singular experience. Their central campus (built in 1909) sits in the old part of town, the building taking up a whole block with a parking lot across the street. It’s easy to forget you’re in a suburb. And the stairs? They lead from the sun-baked sidewalk right up into the side of the building. With each step I start to realize that this staircase is basically an old fire escape. Coach Kerri Elkei welcomes me to a typical summertime Lockport Poms practice.

Inside, the Lockport Porterettes are running laps around this ancient and glorious gym. Fifth-year Coach Elkei has a newborn strapped to her torso as she directs practice. Circling the basketball court are a balanced team of five seniors, four juniors, five sophomores, and four freshman. Half of these dancers were on the team last year. As of mid-summer, the girls had plenty of individual technical specialties, and Coach Elkei’s goal is to transform these into team-wide skills.

On the other hand, that kind of dance diversity is a plus. “In the past we’ve chosen to do more of an open dance style and incorporate some lyrical, modern, jazz, and small amounts of hip hop,” explains Coach Elkei, herself a Lockport poms alum. “We like to be unique in style.” Also unique is their approach to marking out routines. “The girls really don’t put counts to a lot of routines; they are much more into the sounds which always makes for a fun ‘beat-boxing’ practice,” writes their coach.

While the team’s skills are a work in progress, there’s a set of skills they all share, since tryouts required a toe touch, c-jump, switch leap, turning c, a triple, and turns a la seconde. Lockport’s dancers have worked on their technical talents at several nearby studios: Elite, Turning Pointe, Wings, The Dance Studio, and Dance Workshop. Coach Elkei explains, “We encourage the girls to continue or start taking classes while on the team as it helps the program, especially in terms of competition.” Studio training (she estimates about 90% of her girls have it) comes in handy since none of the feeder schools have dance programs—just cheer. In the past, not as many team members had technical dance backgrounds. But the current “10% are eager to learn from scratch,” she estimates.

Coach Elkei tells me that Lockport has plenty of dancers walking the halls but that they have to decide between pursuing poms, cheer, or just studio classes. With such a successful cheer program, and no dance teams at the feeder schools, it can be hard to cultivate a core of freshmen and sophomore dancers. She keeps an eye on her program’s long-term prospects, staying in contact with studios and posting her team’s competition times.

Camp isn’t on the agenda during the summer, but pool parties and sleepovers are. Lockport’s coaches also host a pizza party for their new team. And any fun team-building that would normally happen at camp instead are built into their practice time. The girls focus on conditioning and skills during these summer sessions—a good defense against overuse injuries, which sometimes hits team members that do studio work year-round. I can definitely see that core strength is a point of focus at this practice session, with a lot of the sounds and faces you’d expect to hear and see from doing multiple toe touches in a row!

Summer practices also are the time to work on football halftime choreography—all while “getting to know about each other and coming together as a unit while dancing, learning how to read each other and be in sync,” says Coach Elkei. Today’s routine starts by running it full out, followed by fixing up formations and spacing. She points out to her girls how some of them are executing their moves slightly differently, things like wrist positions and faces. She tells me that “The girls also want to focus on improving and refining skills as a whole rather than just individual talents.”

And here’s where conditioning and technique intersect. “Pom technique is where we’re somewhat lacking right now, so it’s a big focus. Not because they’re not doing it right, but they just need more arm strength,” she says.

Now in fall mode, Lockport’s practices mostly focus on learning and cleaning game choreography, plus some more skills development. They do their work at the somewhat more modern East Campus (built in ’64 and upgraded in ’98), where the sophomores through seniors attend class. The Porterettes practice in the gym and fieldhouse while also making use of a small dance studio.

For the past two seasons, they’ve competed with a single routine, and before that, two. A choreographer crafts the foundation of their competition routine and then the team makes alterations to fit their style. Coach Elkei credits 75% of last year’s dance to her and the girls. The Porterettes handle the choreography for the 10 non-competition halftime dances—mostly pom, but also some jazz, hip hop, and kick.

Coach Elkei’s goal is to “continue to see the program grow in terms of skill level and in the competition arena. We push the girls to be well-rounded in that we want them to truly represent the program.” This includes being sharp academically along with supporting their teammates and other teams at Lockport. She also wants to master more complex choreography for both competition and halftime dances. In terms of results, the Porterettes look to place even higher at the conference contest and to make it back down to state. She points out, though, that “bonding and really working together as a unit is the main goal.”

The Porterettes’ history includes a ton of high placements back in the day in IDTA competition. Coach Kerri Elkei herself was on the state championship title team in 2000 (AAA Kick in IDTA), its banner hanging high on the wall of this gym. She’s quick to add, “The girls like to poke fun at my moment of glory.” Her experience as a team member also includes some tough, valuable lessons on leadership; the team fell apart her senior year (the one after the championship), with one captain appointed and the other voted in, stirring up problems on and off the floor. So instead of captains, Coach Elkei created senior leadership roles, with girls taking turns being in charge of a specific area like leading stretches, warmups, music check, and choreography.

In her previous four years leading this team, Kerri has “seen the program grow immensely in terms of skills level and becoming more competitive.” Before that, she coached at Homewood Flossmoor (where she currently teaches dance) and also danced for a year at Illinois State. Other former Lockport pom members have gone on to dance at Illinois State, colleges in downtown Chicago, and professional studios in the city.

Assistant Coach Julie Rolston, just promoted from JV coach, teaches dance at Lockport Township High School and is in her second year of coaching. She grew up participating in many youth dance programs, and then focused on cheer and gymnastics in high school while at LTHS (remember that thing about talented dancers at Lockport not necessarily joining poms?). After college, she returned to choreograph routines for Lockport. Coach Rolston’s sister, Jill, coaches the dance team at Sandburg, resulting in a friendly rivalry that also involves both teams cheering each other on.

Rounding out the staff is Coach Lauren Sanders, in charge of the JV dancers. While the coaching staff has plenty of dance experience, they feel that not having studied dance in college calls for collaborating with local studio teachers and other trusted dance coaches. And the side effect? More future Porterettes.

All in all, nurturing the Lockport dance program is a top priority for Coach Elkei, especially after struggling last year and also dealing with the frequent coaching turnover that marked the program before her arrival. The pom parents are gradually getting more organized, traveling to far-off competitions and sitting together in the bleachers. The dancers, on the other hand, have the team unity thing down (as of mid-July they’d already had two pool parties) and are encouraged to get together—minus the coaches. Team harmony also gets a boost from the coaches’ keeping a cheat sheet of who gets put in which formations, so any bickering stays minimized.  Yeah, seniority plays a role in who goes where, but so does height!

When it comes to who the team looks up to, it’s no surprise that they’re fans of the University of Minnesota dance team. Elkei writes that “their technique is incredible and they continue to be more and more impressive with song and movement choices every year!” The girls are big fans of Neuqua Valley and always anticipate what that powerhouse team brings to the competition floor. Coach Elkei likes their well-rounded polish: “They are a very well-disciplined team on and off the dance floor.”

For those of you who are fans of teams that grow and develop over an entire school year, Lockport’s a good one to watch. While most teams set goals centered on a certain ranking or whether they get to dance for one or two days at state, Lockport is focused on becoming a better dance team. “The girls definitely know how to motivate each other and work hard while at the same time being able to have fun and be goofy,” comments the fifth-year coach. “This year’s team is extremely energetic and lots of fun. They always make us laugh.” I’m told that they love to sing and do impressions—so yeah, watch out for that.

The funny moments even happen during photo ops. When I round up the team for a picture, the girls position themselves neatly in rows…but with a little flaw, just off to the side of halfcourt. Coach Elkei jokes, “How do you guys not automatically set up at the center?” She turns to me and adds, “I guess we’re still working on our formation skills.”

Practice ends and I take the fire escape / stairs down to the sidewalk where some team members wait for rides home, ready to own their summer afternoons. One of the girls issues me a warning. “We’re usually a lot louder and crazier.” That’s the kind of team personality I like to see for a dance program looking to live up to what came before them, memorialized by that old banner on the wall of an old gym.