Posted 6/12/26 5:06 pm
Norm Ramil
Breaking the journalism rules here, as I’ll start off with dance news and thoughts and THEN the stuff about last night’s severe storms in northern Illinois.
We’re just a week away from our first 8CA technique clinic of the summer! I’m grateful for getting to team up with Maddy Vercelli once again. Y’all know her as a standout talent on the national champ University of Minnesota Dance Team (going into her 4th year!), but I also am blessed to know her as a fantastic teacher.
We’ll have a Q&A session about college dance team insights (prepping, the tryout process, the college team calendar and lifestyle) — but I love how Maddy sprinkles in college dance team nuggets and insights throughout the clinic, too.
@8countaudio Summer clinic spots still open for our 2 sessions with the amazing Maddy V - national champ and 2023 8CA Northern IL Dancer Of The Year, in her 3rd summer as an 8CA instructor!
♬ original sound - seamlessbynz
• Mixed into that montage is Maddy doing THE move from THAT routine a couple nationals ago, as requested by every clinic group in the summer of ’24.
• You gotta love that new floor feeling! There’s a definite breaking-in period. I’m curious on how different a new floor feels for skills and technique. But the classic “look good, feel good” formula definitely applies to more than just costumes, uniforms, and team wear — your dance team headquarters can absolutely impart its own vibe on the team. So, ADs, how about a new floor for your dancers?
• Team bonding time! Villa Grove capped off day one of practice by going to see Michael. Official VG Devilettes review: “It did not disappoint!”
@jacksonville_jettes DANCE ABC challenge 2026!! #danceteam #jettenation
♬ original sound - The J’ettes
• Hard to beat the classic alphabet game for summertime practices. It’s team bonding AND a fun peak into your teammates’ reaction times and dance brains. I definitely wouldn’t want to go up against these J’ettes in such a contest.
• It’s also team photoshoot season, and Ottawa’s got a convenient, nearby setting for some pretty cool shots. BTW: Starved Rock State Park is a definite gem for any nature / scenery fans. Hikes can be as easy or as challenging as you want. AND if you’re ultra-nerdy and traveling from the Chicago area, you get to drive through dance-crazy Minooka, Morris, and Ottawa.
• Came across this amazing piece about a pro dancer with a limb difference. Find someone with an NYT subscription, because it’s such an inspirational quick read:
• The technical challenges she’s had to figure out are pretty formidable, with balance being a remarkable feat. She mentions that she’s had to find solutions to different performance puzzles.
• “I never want to have to change the choreography too much…I always want to find that balance where I can honor the choreography and still be a part of it.”
I hope everyone affected by last night’s storms in Illinois and Indiana are ok. By now you’ve seen the major damage from the Kouts, IN storm, and drone footage of the destruction on the south side of Streator.
• While the 3 or 4 big supercells were spawning tornadoes in Indiana, we also had the squall line coming through northern and northeast Illinois during the 8pm hour.
• I spotted a little flare-up of rotation on the radar and put out a story post for the Sycamore and DeKalb areas, just before it was mentioned on one of the big storm-chasing livestreams (patting myself on the back, I know).
• That rotation fizzled a few minutes later, but when that storm got to the Wayne / Bartlett area, the rotation got a LOT tighter. I put out this story as soon as I could:
• Moments later, they issued an official tornado warning for that area, and I’ve seen a couple reports that something may have actually contacted the ground.
• Those screen vids show the velocity mode of the local NWS radar in Romeoville (not the usual “reflectivity” mode that you’re probably familiar with from weather segments on the news or on an app–in one of the vids above, I flip to that mode at the end just so you could see the difference). Green is wind (just above the surface, however) moving toward the radar, and red is wind moving away. So I’m looking for areas of tight counterclockwise rotation that match what makes sense on the reflectivity version of the radar image (the rotation has to be in a sensible part of the storm), and take into account the overall weather setup for judging how likely a tornado actually is.
• I often get asked about my seemingly-unrelated-to-dance severe weather posts. Besides being a nerdy interest, my thinking is that I’m lucky to have a statewide audience, and so if I see a warning (or even just a sus signal on radar) that might affect a town *with a dance or poms team*, I’ll post a story on Insta.
• On THAT note, we’re in for mostly nice wx (the abbreviation for “weather”) for the most part, aside from some rain chances Saturday overnight into early Sunday, and then quite a cool spell for the first half of next week, but pleasant temps overall for most of the state. And just in time for a TON of car washes this weekend (though possibly a tad cool on Sunday?).