by Norm Ramil / 8ca.music.person & dance.fan

Here’s a nugget for your next game of dance trivia: Belleville is one of just a handful of Illinois suburbs with multiple active competitive dance teams: Althoff Catholic, Belleville East, and Belleville West (other cities with at least 3 teams are Crystal Lake, Naperville, Aurora, Joliet, Plainfield, Rockford, Bloomington, and Chicago).

Just like in the Chicago area, dance teams have flourished in Illinois’ St. Louis suburbs for decades. Althoff Catholic, the reigning IDTA single-A Jazz state champs, is a major part of that history (scroll all the way down for a list of their state hauls over the years). And since around 560 kids attend the private school, even just filling a championship dance roster is no small feat.

Don’t overlook these dancers and the name on their uniform–they’re one of the state’s longest-standing competitive dance teams. And ironically, this IDTA powerhouse team’s history is one of the reasons competitive dance is so huge today, and one of the reasons we hoist IHSA dance trophies in Bloomington!

Official Team Name:

Althoff Catholic High School Dance Team. (Coach Carlin Harp has this tip: Althoff is pronounced with a short A sound like in ‘active’. The A is often mispronounced like in “all”)

Class:

IDTA A

Conference:

South Seven

Coach:

Carlin Harp

Team Breakdown:

A high-five goes to Coach Harp and her captains for helping us put this together! Here’s our email interview:

Does your team have any technical specialties or stuff you’re really good at, and what are you hoping to improve on this year?

Coach Carlin Harp: We’re excited to try to improve our difficulty this year and really try to nail some new skills.

Audrey: We are really good at expressions while we are dancing. Facials are a crucial part of performance and  I think we really nail them for the most part.

What categories or styles of dance will you compete in?

Coach Harp: We will be competing in Pom Dance, Jazz, and Lyrical again this year!

What skills do dancers need to try out for this team?

At tryouts, we require girls to learn a routine that is taught to them by the graduating seniors from the previous year’s team. They are judged on memory of the routine, showmanship, and technique. Tryouts also require demonstrating a pirouette, either single, double, or triple; a toe touch; a right and left leap; right and left splits to show flexibility; and a trick of choice which can be a la seconde turns, another type of leap or jump, or an acrobatic trick.

Do a lot of your dancers have a technical or studio background?

Most girls that make the team have taken studio classes at some pointe (pun intended) and make the team because of that background. Many girls also continue to take studio and may even compete through their studio during the dance team season. There are some exceptions, though, and some girls have made the spirit team that performs at basketball and football games without ever having taken a dance class.

What are you guys up to throughout the summer and fall?

Coach Harp: The team practices in the summer starting late-May after the school year ends to work on team technique, stylizing, and conditioning before camp. During the summer, the team usually does a community event as a promotion to help as volunteers. In the past, we’ve cheered cancer survivors at a Relay for Life event and also have worked as volunteers for a family day fair at a local area business.

Captains: Over the summer, we practice about 3 days a week early in the morning.  We work on dance technique and get back in shape for the season. Next, we attend UDA camp which is a great opportunity for the team to bond and to improve a lot.  We also host a kiddie camp for any grade school kids who want to try dance or who want to eventually try out for our team. It helps promote our team and gives girls on the team a chance to choreograph dances on their own. In the fall, we perform at home football games before the game doing our fight song, and during halftime doing a dance that we make.

Can you tell us more about your performance and competition schedule throughout the year?

Competition season starts in late-October and runs through February. We have a separate tryout in late October to determine who is going to be on Competition team. The schedule of practices are usually every day after school until about 5:30-5:45 pm, and many times on Saturday mornings if we don’t already have a competition.

Competition season is BUSY. We also perform at home basketball games during competition season and many times the team will practice after school on Friday night until 5:00, immediately get ready for the basketball game to start, perform at the game, and then wake up the next morning for competition to be at the school by 6am. We also host our own competition every December. It’s small but a great way to get introduced into competition season and see what other teams are doing that year. We receive help from our teachers at school and our parents, and it’s all hands on deck to make things work.

What’s a typical practice like, and do you guys have your own practice space?

Every practice starts with a warmup and stretch led by captains. If we aren’t learning new material, the team will mark it once, then full out. Then we clean certain parts of the dance until they look perfect, then full out again.

Our practice space is our theater building at Althoff. It’s also the practice gym if you’ve ever been to Althoff’s regional IDTA competition. It’s a large gym floor that has a mind of its own on if it will be super sticky or more slippery than ice.

Anything about the coaches’ backgrounds and your coaching philosophy?

As a coach, I like to let the girls lead each other as much as possible. The captains make up the routines for football season. The captains also get to watch the routines and help me see what needs to be cleaned.

As a coach, I want 110% at all times and I do my best to encourage that if I see confidence is lacking. I encourage them to try even if they fail and try again, and again, and again. I also like to remind the girls that things are temporary so just because the team did well last week, doesn’t mean we will do well the next time. I also try to keep things fun, because competition season can get stressful so we joke around a lot and laugh off mistakes to do better next time. I usually attend practices dressed in work attire and will often times demonstrate the way to move in transitions with heels on.

Any favorite memories from last season?

Captains: One of the favorite memories from last year was a sleepover the team had.  We ate so much food and decided to watch a horror movie. It wasn’t very scary, but we were all a little paranoid after it.

Audrey: Getting to go to state early last year to cheer on our former captain, Kali, for her solo competition. She ended up finishing 4th in her pool and 9th overall.

What are you looking forward to this season?

The captains are looking forward to football season because we get to dance without the stress of competitions. Dancing at football games gives us a chance to spread school spirit and our school just got a new sports complex.

The girls are also looking forward to improving on their technique, especially in turns. The captains feel there’s a lot of potential with our team having just won a state championship and having a very young team.

What’s it like to compete in IDTA instead of IHSA?

I think much of the reason we continue to compete in IDTA is tradition of it. The team enjoys competing in categories instead of just division based on school enrollment size. Our former coach was an IDTA officer and VP for years, so the longstanding relationship with IDTA means a lot to our team.

Althoff used to compete in pom, pom dance, and kick, but in the last 5 years have changed to Pom dance, Jazz, and Lyrical.

Are there any unique challenges being a team from a private school?

The biggest challenge is funding. We rely heavily on fundraising and donors to purchase items for the team like uniforms and poms. Much of our team gear is paid for by the girls themselves and there are years where the team has to fund raise for uniforms if we want them.

Being a team from a private school also usually means we’re quite a bit smaller than other teams from public schools since the school’s enrollment numbers are usually smaller than area public schools.

But the small nature of our team and school also is a huge benefit since dance team members get to spend so much time together. Outside of the hours at dance practices, they likely have many classes together and our team winds up becoming very close regardless of class year.

Anything about the program’s history; achievements over the years; any alums that have danced at the college level?

The Dance team at Althoff has a longstanding reputation. One coach led the team for nearly 40 years as the coach. The team has earned many state champion trophies, more than any other team sport at Althoff, most recently single A Jazz last season, and that drives the team to continue to make themselves and their school proud.

Althoff’s had many alums dance at the college level at places such as University of Tulsa, Southern Indiana University Evansville, Oklahoma State University, and Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. Our own coach danced at St. Louis University as a Saintsation and we even have an alum who danced as a St. Louis Rams Cheerleader for a couple seasons! Two of our recent alums were selected to become UDA camp instructors as well.

Other teams you guys are fans of?

Coach Carlin Harp: We love a good hip hop routine, even though we don’t compete in hip hop. In recent years, Centralia HS has gotten our attention, starting when their music cut out at Althoff’s competition in 2016 and they kept going and finished the routine flawlessly. Local teams such as Belleville East and Highland are teams we’ve always admired and respected.

Captains: We love to watch hip hop at competitions and videos of the dance team from the University of Minnesota. They always have really sharp movements and their choreography is always so innovative.

Fun / quirky facts about the team and its members, or any extra things you’d like to add

This team is the definition of fun and quirky. 1/3 of the team members are named Hannah or Hanna. Whenever we make formations, there’s always confusion about which Hanna(h) goes where.

We do not have any seniors this year.

If Bread Co. or Chick Fil A are involved, we’re there. [Chicago-area teams: “St. Louis Bread Company” is what Panera calls its stores in the St. Louis area!]

Althoff Catholic Dance at State

IDTA 1982: Superior Rating in Pom; Superior Rating in Novelty

IDTA 1983: Superior Rating in Pom

IDTA 1985: Superior Rating in Pom

IDTA 1986: Superior Rating in Pom; Superior Rating in Dance (this was the jazz category)

IDTA 1987: Superior Rating in Pom

IDTA 1988: Superior Rating in Dance-Open (this was jazz for the larger schools)

IDTA 1989: Superior Rating in Dance-Open

IDTA 1990: Superior Rating in Dance-Small School; Superior Rating in Pom-Small School

IDTA 1991: Champions in Dance-Small School

IDTA 1992: 4th in Pom-Small School

IDTA 1993: Champions in A Dance; 2nd in A Pom

IDTA 1994: 2nd in A Dance; 5th in A Pom

IDTA 1995: Champions in A Hip Hop (category was called “Aerobic Funk”); 3rd in A Pom

IDTA 1996: Champions in A Hip Hop (category was called “Aerobic Funk”); 4th in A Pom

IDTA 1997: Champions in A Dance; 4th in A Pom

IDTA 1998: 4th in AA Pom

IDTA 1999: 4th in AA Pom; 3rd in AA Pom Dance

IDTA 2002: 2nd in AA Pom; 4th in AA Pom Dance

IDTA 2003: 5th in AA Pom; 5th in AA Pom Dance

IDTA 2004: 5th in AA Pom Dance

IDTA 2005: 2nd in A Pom; 2nd in A Pom Dance

IDTA 2006: 2nd in A Pom; 2nd in A Pom Dance

IDTA 2007: 2nd in A Pom; Champions in A Pom Dance

IDTA 2008: 2nd in A Pom; 2nd in A Pom Dance; 2nd in A Kick

IDTA 2009: 4th in A Pom; Champions in A Pom Dance; 3rd in A Kick

IDTA 2010: Champions in A Pom; 3rd in A Pom Dance; 3rd in A Kick

IDTA 2011: 7th in A Pom; 5th in A Pom Dance; 2nd in A Kick

IDTA 2012: 2nd in A Pom; 5th in A Pom Dance; 8th in A Kick

IHSA 2013: 16th in 1A

IDTA 2013: 2nd in A Pom; 7th in A Pom Dance

IDTA 2014: 4th in A Pom; 3rd in A Pom Dance

IDTA 2015: Champions in A Jazz; 2nd in A Pom Dance

IDTA 2016: 3rd overall in A; 7th in A Jazz; 3rd in A Pom Dance; 3rd in A Lyrical/Contemporary

IDTA 2017: 9th in A Pom Dance; 2nd in A Lyrical/Contemporary

IDTA 2018: 2nd overall in A; Champions in A Jazz; 3rd in A Pom Dance; 2nd in A Lyrical/Contemporary