Slideshow 4 extra notes

slide 1: Somonauk

It was quite the drive out to rural southern DeKalb County on a crazy-cold night of December 17th, but I really wanted to find out more about this team after its breakout season in 2017-18. This shot has them going over a halftime dance under the watchful eye of Coach Jensen.

slide 2: Ottawa

The Pirate Pom dancers are busy using the entire floor in their dramatic routine for IDTA’s AAA Jazz category at the Maine East comp on January 6th.

slide 3: Grayslake North

The team had already left after morning practice wrapped up on June 7th, but staffer Kaitlyn (a GN dance team alum) and I got to film our first choreography promo video in the dance room. I came across a question that’s worth asking yourself continually!

slide 4: JV Duet

A very cool thing that IDTA does is Start The Beat, a competition full of solos, duets, and small groups. These two JV dancers (simply listed as H. Stanley and F. Whitley on the schedule) boldly own the floor for their big moment. This past season’s event was at Jacksonville H.S. on October 20th.

slide 5: Lemont

One of Lemont’s captains sent in this moment from football season. In case you’ve never been there, this has to be one of the most picturesque campuses in the Chicago area. Thanks so much!

slide 6: Minooka

These amazing dancers were so strong all season and they brought their talents all the way to Day 2 of IHSA state. Here they are in the finals on the way to a 5th place finish. 

slide 7: Lakes

It’s a new era for this program. Longtime 8CA staffer Kaitlyn and I agreed that Lakes made some astounding progress between the start and end of the season. This shot is from their conference comp back on January 11th.

slide 8: Glenbard West

The West dancers flexed their talents this season at competitions, but before all that was a beautiful Saturday 9/22 when they marched through downtown Glen Ellyn for the homecoming parade. Check out the vintage style uniforms!

slide 9: Lake Park

I’ve said it dozens of times and I’ll say it again: the Lancettes are legit dance royalty here in Illinois. These days they’re in the new DuKane Conference. At the conference comp on January 10th their varsity danced to a 2nd place finish behind Geneva, while Lake Park’s JV took home 1st.

slide 10: Conant

Each time the Conant Charrelles took the comp floor they seemed more poised and confident. This pic throws it back to their first performance of the comp season at Fremd on November 17th. You can already detect a little swagger in this shot as they’re about to set their first formation.

slide 11: Glenbard South

Coach Haley Kruis revealed a stash of past trophies when I dropped by on February 13th. This one’s a sweet looking piece of hardware…1st place in JV at the December 2016 Crystal Lake Central comp.

slide 12: Loyola

Back in the day it wasn’t unusual to do back-to-back comps in the same weekend. The Ramblerettes took that a step further on January 13th when they competed at Grayslake Central in the morning (shown here) before making the long drive to the Near West Side of Chicago to dance at their conference comp at St. Ignatius in the afternoon!

slide 13: Plainfield Central

When the weather outside is disappointingly cold (I mean this has to be one of the chilliest March 4ths ever, right?), ya can’t beat a carwash picture from last summer. The Central dancers and coaches have always been so accommodating when I visit, even in the serious heat of August 4th.

slide 14: Huntley

Dance teams were busy on the last Friday of winter break. I got to hang out with the Raider Dance Team as they busily restructured their hip hop routine in preparation for the last couple weeks before sectionals. These dancers were so supportive of one another!

slide 15: Batavia

You’ll always get pretty turns from any Batavia team. Here’s a nice example from their 2nd routine on December 16th at the Warren comp.