Team Feature: Streamwood

Looking to cheer for an underdog? Pick Streamwood. These girls won’t let you down because they won’t let each other down.

 

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

Way back in March of 2003, 8 Count Audio’s first “assist” on a state championship was with the Streamwood Sabrettes. Back then, IDTA had a “prop” category. Think of it as a pom-style, themed routine but without the poms. Instead, you had props to help tell your theme’s story. I had the honor of creating a Vegas-themed mix, and the dancers manipulated giant playing cards (like maybe 4 feet high) and huge dice.

We also worked on pom routines and kept at it until breaking through with a pom category state championship in March, 2005. Things got rough for the program for the next few years, with coaching turnover and the district’s finances under even more pressure than seemed possible.

But there’s a spark, hints of growth and positive energy. Streamwood is in comeback mode, led by six seniors and seven juniors. On the underclassmen side are two sophomores and three freshmen. Fifteen of the eighteen girls were Sabrettes last year, so tons of experience should tilt this young season in the right direction. “I feel [that] says a lot about the relationship we build in our program,” comments sixth-year Coach Kendra Humann.

Summer sometimes sends dance teams away from their typical practice space. For the Streamwood Sabrettes, a late-summer practice meant setting up in the commons area of Canton Middle School, just down the road from the high school. The nearby band room couldn’t restrain the sounds of Streamwood’s marching band, preparing for an upcoming parade. Meanwhile, the football team was sweating it out on the field. On this steamy morning, Streamwood High School’s teams were hard at work, just away from their own building.

Coach Humann is no stranger to this space. She teaches English here at the middle school, and some of the dancers out on the floor used to be her students years ago. We’re in the commons, sort of a lunchroom / performance place with a curtained stage up front. College banners hang from the ceiling and subtly sway to the air flow, a reminder of what’s possible for the middle schoolers who go here.

Today’s practice is exclusively a technique class taught by Jory Bowling, a specialist who helps out with this team’s technical development. It’s all business, and feedback comes fast and frequently. Coach Humann and I carry on a quiet conversation off to the side out of respect for the serious, challenging work going on in front of us. For some of these girls, this summer is their first time doing across-the-floor work.

Other teammates have studio training and are called on to demonstrate the basics of each drill. These girls have danced with Dance Motions and Jagged Edge Dance Academy, plus the Streamwood Park District. Technical specialist Jory Bowling fills in the knowledge gaps, while UDA camp during the summer adds more opportunities for skills development. A few girls were part of “dance club” in middle school, but there isn’t a formal dance team that feeds up to the high school.

Just like at other schools, anonymous dancers mix into the student population who aren’t on the team—it’s obvious because their skills are on display during the talent shows. Other potential dancers end up attending the district’s academy instead of Streamwood. Throw in the financial challenges of both the district and the families of these student athletes (many can’t afford studio classes, and flexible payment plans are common when it comes to fees), and you start to appreciate the uphill nature of Streamwood’s dance journey in the decade since their state title years.

Trying out for the team requires a double pirouette, toe touch, a grand jete, and right and left splits. Candidates perform a short routine so Coach Humann can evaluate showmanship, musicality, and choreography memory. The advanced stuff doesn’t have a role at tryouts, but you can look for it during comp season. “The girls enjoy highlighting their individual technical accomplishments in our routines, such as calypsos, turning discs, firebirds, a la secondes, and so forth,” says Coach Humann.  But at tryouts, “I look for the basics to ensure I can keep building my program and look for girls who have the potential to be great varsity members, as we do not have a junior varsity team.” On this year’s team, you’ll find a former gymnast (Streamwood doesn’t have a gymnastics program). Another is a gifted, natural athlete looking to apply her talents to dance. And there’s the girl with only couple years of studio knowledge but is really good.

Even without having danced on a team herself (she cheered for Streamwood back in the day), Coach Humann is no passive observer. She’s deftly combined her own cheer background with a few years of on-the-job dance coach training, so she’s got more than a few tips for the dancers who lack training. She found herself in charge of this once-high-profile dance program after several seasons marked by coaching turnover; eventually the pom parents approached her to coach because of her good rapport with the girls. Now in her 6th season, she heads a dance program that’s finally on solid ground.

At today’s technique class, I suddenly hear an accidental throwback to those Streamwood Poms glory days, but I’m the only one to notice. The across-the-floor combo is a chasse followed by two leaps, and the song is “Like I Love You” by Justin Timberlake (IMHO, his best song). Straight from the fall of ’02, when this program was on its way to a hard-won state title.

Once school starts, the Sabrettes return to their normal practice spaces. Unlike their counterparts at other schools in the district, this team doesn’t have its own dance room. Sometimes they’ll even use the trophy cases as makeshift mirrors (a trick that I do hear about from a lot of teams). For the most part, the girls sharpen their routines in the hall and the commons area by the gym, just like the Streamwood pom teams that were so successful over a decade ago.

The girls work on more than just their routines at summer practice. Thirty minutes of strength training, an hour of stretching and flexibility, a half hour of tech skills, and then comes the work on the routines. Max effort and consistency at practice are the tools to accomplish success, according to Coach Humann. She believes that “the consistency [of practice agendas] has been helpful because everyone knows what to expect and what is expected of them. Plus, it’s a good time to build team confidence and support one another.” Throw in a few laughs, like singing along to Beyonce or Hannah Montana or Luke Bryan on Pandora, and you’ve got a complete team experience.

Team-building happens away from the practice floor, too, like when they tie-died shirts for camp, hit North Avenue Beach in the city, and splashed around at team pool parties. The Sabrettes also danced on pavement a couple times this summer, performing at the 4th of July parade with the band, cheerleaders, and football team, and again at the end of July at the Streamwood Summer Celebration parade. “Our athletes at Streamwood have a tight bond and support one another tremendously, especially our cheerleaders. We have a great respect for one another, which can be unusual for some high schools,” explains the former cheerleader and current poms coach.

The Streamwood program has appeared at state several times, including at the Team Dance Illinois state contest in her first year as coach. Sabrette routines have always been choreographed by Coach Humann and the captains. “As our program made the transition to IHSA, we haven’t quite found our style to be successful in terms of state qualification,” says the veteran coach. She notes “the heavy emphasis on whole-team technical ability that I feel is beyond the average high school standard,” and also misses how their TDI and IDTA scores valued artistic ability, especially in pom work.

Coach Humann and her team have made the switch away from their comfort zone of pom and kick (their categories back in their IDTA and TDI days). “This year, we’re following suit and trying out jazz for the first time,” declares Coach Humann. The goal is to build their name up in the dance community once again, which has “inspired our motto: ‘Work for what you want’…and my girls work hard.”

A new dance style, and a team with a wide variety of skill levels. If this transition sounds daunting and risky, you’re right. That’s where technical consultant Jory Bowling comes in to the equation. “Bringing someone in from the outside who isn’t familiar with us helps us avoid doing the same old sequences and things we are too comfy with,” says Coach Humann. At the same time, Streamwood relies on members of their pom family to continue strengthening the program. Assistant Coach Priscilla Beltran, who danced on this team not very long ago, has a few girls off to the side working on fouettes during the end of today’s tech class.

Current dancers can count on a mutual love and respect among themselves and their coach. Humann remembers how her group chat overflowed with Sabrettes reminiscing about camp. “I believe if we truly care for one another and enjoy each other’s company, it shows out on the dance floor.  And we have accomplished just that…if we are not at practice, we miss each other.”

Alums stay close, too. “We pride ourselves on our family dynamic we have created. Once a Sabrette, always a Sabrette!,” says Coach Humann, who keeps the lines of communication open with her past dancers. Some of them even came to her wedding. Former Sabrettes are also known to volunteer to help with practices and chaperone for camp.

Watching these Streamwood girls challenge themselves in such a supportive environment is a great signal that this is a team to keep an eye on. It’s true that they face challenges you don’t find at some other schools, but what they’ve got on their side is tradition, unity, emotional support, technical support, and a whole lotta heart.

Those things aren’t on the rubric on the judges’ scoresheets, for sure. But I can’t help but believe that what these girls do—with what they’ve got—is what dance is really all about.