The Dance Team competed at the NDA Nationals this weekend and showed their strength with their dancing and teamwork by placing 5th in Hip Hop and 10th in Pom.

The girls have worked hard all season by placing high at all the competitions they’ve gone to. Some highlights from the season include the team getting first place in KDCO regionals at Ryle and the Varsity team placing first in Hip Hop and Pom at the KHSAA regionals at Madison Central.

The Varsity team went to Orlando, Florida this weekend to dance at the National Competition. On Friday the team competed in the Pom primaries, Saturday they competed in the Hip Hop primaries, and on Sunday they competed in the finals for both Pom and Hip Hop.

Even though they were all busy with the tough competition, the girls still had fun by doing things such as going to the pool together to bond as a team.

Lizzy Roeding, junior, talked about how she felt going into the competition with her team.

She said, “We were really excited but nervous at the same time. You never know what the other teams are going to bring to the table and you can’t predict what the judges are going to be looking for. All the teams want it just as badly as you do so every team is really good. Many of the other Kentucky teams support us and hang out with us during the trip.”

Roeding also talked about how Sunday, after they performed Hip Hop, the team all hugged and cried to make their last performance all together a memorable and touching moment with the seniors leaving next year.

Lindsay Thompson, freshman, talked about the season as a whole with her team by her side.

She said, “I think the reason we did so well is because our team is very close with one each other so it allowed us to work and dance as a team. This season impacted me a lot because it was the closest team I have ever been on. Because of our bond, we were able to correct each other in a good way, which really helped us throughout the season.”

Hannah Schwalbach, senior, reflected on the team’s performance overall and how people reacted to them.

She said, “I believe we did amazing. We never have made top 10 before in Pom. Although in Hip Hop we didn’t place high, the amount of people that came up to us telling us how amazing we were was countless. Many people were saying how we should’ve won or how excited they were to watch our routine. There was an article published on the NDA website talking about how intriguing and amazing our routine was. It was said that no matter how we placed, we could go home knowing that we would be remembered.”

Schwalbach ended her statement by saying, “My team worked as hard as they could’ve all year and while we were down there, I couldn’t be more proud.”

The Dance Team overall showed the other teams in Orlando what they’re made of, and they all stood by one another to get those high scores for the end of their season.