Preview of the 2020 Dance Season
December 16, 2020
The 2020 winter sports season is going to be very different from previous seasons because of the COVID-19 outbreak. However, the majority of winter sport athletes are thrilled for their upcoming season because they aren’t canceled. . . yet. The 2020 dance season starts with tryouts on Monday, November 16th, 6-9 pm. Same as the rest of the winter sports, the MSHSL has made many regulations and rule changes to dance competitions and the dance requirements itself. For both kick and jazz, the times have been decreased from last year because of COVID-19. Jazz is now 2:00-3:00 and kick is now 2:30-3:00. And also the kick count decreased to the minimum being 35 kicks instead of the 45 kick minimum of previous seasons. Sadly, all winter sports have been ‘paused’ until December 14th.
Throughout the many seasons of the New Ulm dance team, there have been many coaches. However, currently, the dance team is coached by Ms. Winter, an English teacher. Winter has been the head dance coach for 1 year and going on two.
In the 2019 dance season there were zero seniors; however, this season there are seven. Mya Isenberg, Ceanna Zins, Emma Fairbairn, Alexis Rustin, and Kendra Nesvold are the senior dancers coming back for their fifth and sixth year on the dance team. “I’m most excited for the routines because they are really cool,” Emma Fairbairn said. Fortunately, this year two new senior dancers are trying out the dance team for the first time. Sol Mendoza and Leandra Jorgenson. Sol has been in dance for eleven years and most excited about the competitions. “This is my first year in dance. . . [I’m most excited] just to be apart of the team,” Leandra Jorgenson said.
In the dance team world, themes for routines are normal – every team tries to be more creative than the others so the themes can get very unique. The New Ulm dance team has had some unique themes in the past. For example, last year’s varsity kick routine was an 80s mix and the dancers wore neon leotards and scrunchies. This year the varsity kick routine is creepy dolls with them wearing tutus and pigtails. The music is a variety of scary movie songs and old music box tunes. For varsity jazz, the routine is entitled “Fire and Ice,” with the dancers wearing elegant blue costumes symbolizing the Ice.
Throughout the past dance seasons, the New Ulm dance team has come up with many creative themes for dances but this year’s routines are on another level.
