A few seasons ago, I noticed that the Fremd dancers had the word “legendary” stitched on the back of their jackets. The numbers back it up.

 

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

 

What does it take to be legendary? You could count the trophies, a collection that the Fremd poms started in 1994 with its first IDTA state championship. Or you could measure the length of sustained success (they’ve come home from state with repeated 1sts, 2nds, and 3rds in three different decades). Or you could check for fan support. We’ve all heard the crowd chants when big teams take the floor at competitions (“1-2-3-, we love the JV” is one of my generic faves). But Fremd’s dancers get to hear their own devoted fans chant, “Vik-ing pow-er,” with the obligatory hard hand claps.

 

I happen to visit the Fremd dance team at what’s probably the busiest time of their fall. They’re getting ready to dance at a Northwestern home game this weekend followed by homecoming week, so this evening’s practice has a lengthy agenda. Varsity Coach Suzanne Adamski keeps her team on-task while also trying to solve a hiccup in the gym’s sound system. The dancers don’t mind the delay; there’s plenty of choreo to learn and walk through before any music’s actually needed.

 

Dancing on a D-1 college field is a cool opportunity for any high school dancer. The spotlight is huge (even in a down year for that football team, it’s still the Big Ten, and some smart and successful NU alums are watching the broadcast across the country). But Fremd is used to these big moments. Besides running their own competition in late November, these dancers and the reputation of their program literally keep spectators in the seat instead of leaving the gym for lunch or the bathroom. It’s not uncommon to overhear a random dance mom at a competition ask another random dance mom, “When does Fremd go on?”

 

Varsity Coach Suzanne Adamski is technically in her first year leading one of Illinois’ top dance programs, taking over for longtime Fremd coach / poms matriarch Jane Richards. It’s a big task, especially with a 25-girl roster (a typical size for a Fremd dance team). Six seniors are at the top while the ten juniors make up 40% of the team. Alongside them are the four sophomores and five freshmen. The Fremd dancers are effectively a group of 23, with two dancers sidelined for the year with injuries. At tonight’s practice, it’s clear that those two are an integral part of the team, helping with feedback while stretching on the side.

 

It’s not hard to find dance talent at big schools like Fremd, and it doesn’t hurt to have a hugely successful tradition to attract incoming talent. To try out, you’ve got to have your firebirds and fouéttes ready. This year’s girls also had to execute a “funky turn involving ‘and’ counts,” according to Coach Adamski. One senior later elaborated that it had something to do with doubles mixed in with secondes. She demonstrated it and yeah, while it could use a catchy name, it definitely looked cool.

 

“Sometimes studios don’t like to share their girls,” explains Adamski, without any audible resentment. She gets it, and given a roster full of capable dancers, missing out on some studio dancers is probably okay. Besides, with Fremd’s night practices it can be hard to live the double life of pom dancer and studio student. Still, Fremd’s in the same boat as other schools in suburbs that have quality studios. “Studio dancers lean toward orchesis,” she adds. And don’t forget about the Vikettes, Fremd’s high-profile flag team. Back in the TDI and IDTA days when you’d find flag and dance teams together at the same competition, this made for one gigantic and loud Fremd fan section.

 

On the other hand, practicing in the evening lets the Fremd dancers have the gym floor, and if not, there’s the cafeteria. Practice starts at 6, but as you dancers know, this really means 5:40 if you’re serious about higher scores at competitions. Coach Adamski sometimes starts with video review and goal-setting at each of the three practices per week (down from four last year). When things get intense during the winter, the Fremd Dance Team makes use of the dance room for stretching and conditioning. Once that’s done, it’s back to the gym for actual dance work, since the dance room’s not really the right size for a big team’s formations.

 

If any up-and-coming dancer is intimidated by the idea of being on such a high profile team, it’s understandable.  Fremd dance teams are big, and their numbers create a commanding stage presence whenever they perform. And even if you put aside those tryouts skills that might be tougher than average, there’s that whole Fremd legacy thing. But all of that is part of the Fremd poms culture, something that former coach Jane Richards and Coach Adamski have carefully built over time. That shared identity makes it easier for the younger dancers to fit in. “They’re cohesive for such a big group,” Adamski proudly notes. “They’re good at embracing the new people.”

 

Instead of captains, this team has an executive board of two leaders plus three seniors. One of these girls is a choreo specialist; another has exceptional technical skills for the rest of the team to mirror, especially for those dancers who dance “athletically” rather than technically. Another board member keeps tabs on morale and team interactions. Coach Adamski is available to her girls throughout the day as a guidance counselor at Fremd, which nicely balances with JV Coaches Marissa Garnello and Melanie Jones, who aren’t in the building during the school day. Both are recent Fremd pom alums.

 

Coach Adamski says that deep down, Fremd is a kick team. But that only really works for UDA nationals instead of IHSA competition. Other team traits end up getting edited out of IHSA routines: turning spots and reversed turns. And facials? “They don’t like to work on those during practice,” admits their coach.

 

Competition dances are designed by hired choreographers, but the girls take care of halftime routines. JV’s routines are choreographed by varsity members, many of whom could end up on the executive board one day. The Fremd Dance Team had four home games to prepare for this fall (though the first performance got a little dicey with a music fail).

 

You can’t really discuss the Fremd dance program without mentioning former coach Jane Richards. With her at the helm, the Fremd Poms went on a state trophy binge. There were those three AAA Pom IDTA state championships in the late ‘90s. You can also count six placements of 2nd or 3rd in AAA Pom at IDTA state between ’97 and ’05. In AAA Kick, the Fremd Poms stair-stepped upwards from 3rd to 2nd to 1st between 1996 and ’98. Another Kick championship came in 2002, and they vied for titles but earned 2nds or 3rds in Kick three times between 2000 and 2004. Switching over to the Team Dance Illinois (TDI) AAA division in 2007, Fremd won a state title in pom. The team placed 3rd in pom in ’08, and then won it in ’09 along with a 3rd in kick. Coach Richards guided her team to a 2nd place pom finish in 2010, followed by a 3rd in pom and a 2nd in kick for 2011. Fremd capped off its TDI career with a 3rd place pom state trophy in February of 2012. The program came home 13th in 2013, IHSA’s first year of competition. Fremd fought hard in the no-category format and earned an 18th in 2014, 8th in 2015, and 18th last year.

 

With that kind of record, tradition can’t help but matter. For example, there’s the team name. They haven’t totally abandoned the “poms” team label, though they freely swerve back and forth between calling themselves “poms” and “dance team.” Last year was a tag-team season with both Richards and Adamski running the team in order to create a seamless transition in leadership. But it’s hard to see this year as an actual rookie season for the new coach, since she has two years of JV coaching experience in the Fremd poms program. Before that, Adamski coached cheer for 15 years in Schaumburg and also taught for the Varsity brand.

 

“I can’t clean a routine like she does,” admits Coach Adamski, comparing herself to her predecessor and mentor.

 

On top of that gigantic change, the Fremd dancers adjusted to a new school calendar for the ’16-’17 year. This meant a shortened summer (June 10th through August 10th). Still, they found time to tackle a two-day intensive from “Battle-Tested,” literally a boot camp that doubled as a team-building experience. On the other side of the comfort scale was their UDA camp at the Chula Vista resort in Wisconsin Dells. Throw in the usual junior pom camp and car washes, and you’ve got the kind of summer that should launch a season to remember.

 

The girls continued working on the whole mental side of the competitive dance game as the fall began. “We emphasize ‘smart goals’ that the girls can measure and quantify,” explains Adamski. This means that the typical goal of “making it to state” isn’t really useful. On top of that, there’s the Northwestern performance, building professional skills (like how to craft a resumé), self-reflection, and communicating with visitors (like me).

 

It all sounds really Joe Maddon-ish (or for you ‘90s Bulls fans, Phil Jackson-ish), which bodes well for the Fremd Dance Team if you think about the hardware that those professional coaches now own. “We really focus on accountability and the actual quality of the performances,” something reinforced in a summer presentation by sports psychologist Jeff Benson. “The girls learned about having the right mindset and taking responsibility, the idea that criticism is good and mistakes lead to growth. We’re learning to embrace and seek weaknesses in order to find strengths,” Coach Adamski explains.

 

Oh, and there’s the whole dance side of it, too. A technical specialist—yes, that Richard guy—comes in to work with these dancers from time to time. He likes to do conditioning in a way that incorporates dance skills.

 

Don’t worry, the team knows how to have a good time when not training and thinking their way to success. Last year at state, the whole team occupied one giant table for a birthday dinner at Kobe Hibachi Steakhouse. Someone (I’m guessing the parent committee) had the foresight to bring some disco lights.

 

These girls also enjoy mesmerizing their peers with flashy tricks woven into their halftime choreography (lifts tend to be a favorite). I can vouch for that, because at this practice I witness one of the more elaborate halftime dances I’ve seen, full of shifting formations, moving parts, and yeah, those lifts. With a mixture of pride and concern, Coach Adamski tells me, “They don’t like to tone it down!” This is true. They run through tonight’s routine over and over, gradually tweaking the timing and movements of the different groups in the formation so they can cut down on the collisions. And like a truly united team, they talk things over. It takes awhile, but it’s time well spent, brainstorming solutions on how to avoid bumping into each other while still cramming some challenging choreography into what seems to be not enough counts. But by the end of the night, I’m a believer: they really can keep the choreo they want and shift formations within a time span that most teams can’t work with.

 

With a tweak to the IHSA calendar, more UDA-focused Chicagoland dance teams will be able to compete with their varsity teams at IHSA state because there won’t be a scheduling conflict. This is something the Fremd Dance Team looks forward to, as they’ll finally get a chance to go head-to-head with more of their UDA peers.

 

Way before that comes their own competition, a recent late-November tradition that a lot of Chicago area dance teams circle on their calendar. As hosts, the Fremd Dance Team wants to make sure that more guests go home with what they deserve: category awards. It’s unofficial in the eyes of IHSA, but we all have to give a fist pump to Fremd, who are blazing the trail back to the kind of dance scene we’re familiar with. No matter what the placements are, it’s for certain that this weekend’s Fremd invitational will be more fun than anything we’ve seen since 2012. It’s totally fitting that this kick and pom-centered dance program starts the Illinois dance community back on the right track.

 

Besides offering category recognition, Fremd has another sign that they’re taking the long view. “Dance is a competitive team from November through March…it is an eleven month commitment,” declares the Fremd Dance Team’s homepage. It’s the literal truth, but it also shows how steeped in tradition they are, reflecting past years when you’d try out in April and work until state in March.

 

Thankfully, these girls aren’t fueled just by tradition or the program’s “legendary” status. Senior Mahiro Oharu teaches and cleans the halftime choreo at tonight’s practice, weaving through formations with an interesting mixture of drill sergeant, mad professor, and cheerleader. A quick post-practice chat with her and the other seniors shows me that this team doesn’t have to be legendary to be awesome. They’ve got that magical combo of training, dedication, humor, and trust, all things that they themselves have crafted without necessarily leaning too hard on the name on the front of their uniforms.

 

If they bring this much intensity, fun, and creativity to a halftime show, it’s exciting to imagine what they might do on the competition floor. And you’ll still get to hear moms in the bleachers ask each other, “Did you see Fremd?”

 

Senior Spotlight:

 

Sarah Azzarello has danced since 6th grade with a few different studios including Dimensions in Palatine. Her favorite dance style is kick. The coolest part about being on Fremd Poms is the people she gets to dance with. At a huge high school, “we might not all be friends but we are because of Poms.” She doesn’t have a specific go-to for music. In fact, she’s a fan of silence!

 

Emma Heinlein started dancing at age 3. She works on her skills at Bataille Dance in Barrington where she developed a love of ballet. When it comes to music her fave artist of the moment is Drake.

 

Mahiro Oharu listens to hip hop and alternative when she’s not dancing. She’s danced since she was 3 years old, with classes taken at Northwestern Ballet and Faubourg School of Ballet. As for favorite dance styles, all of them are fair game, especially hip hop and ballet. “Bonding as a team and building trust” are the best aspects of being on this team, she says.

 

Mia Robben picked up her love of dance from park district classes over the years, and she’s up for any style (but she specifically mentioned jazz and hip hop). She’s looking forward to being part of a team that trusts each other and works to fix errors. She’s excited to see what all the other teams have for routines, plus the chance to consume some Dippin’ Dots at competitions.

 

Angela Peterson launched her dance career when she was 3 and currently goes to Bataille Dance. You’ll find country and hip hop flowing through her headphones, and she likes a variety of dance styles (starting with jazz). The coolest part of being on this roster: “We’re famous at this school, almost like a sorority!” She’s got big goals for her team. “I want us to be the team that sets an example, a benchmark for the future.” When it’s all over, she wants to feel that “we did it as a team, and we were excited no matter what happens.”

 

Isabella Rosman came to the dance world in 7th grade and took classes at Dimensions in Palatine. She brings a love of jazz to this kick and pom team. Goal-wise, she’s looking “to have no regrets when we step off the floor” after a performance. She’s a fan of how the team loves its throwback music and how it takes her back to her middle school days—Chris Brown, for example.