The Bloomington High School Dance Team is headed to Orlando, Florida this week to compete in the Universal Dance Association’s 2023 National Team Championships.
The team qualified for the event by attending a UDA training camp, where their high-level performance earned a bid to compete at nationals. While the BHS Dance Team also competes in statewide events hosted by the Illinois High School Association and Illinois Drill Team Association, teams don't need to win those titles to ascend to the national contest.
The BHS dance team will compete in two categories — Game Day, a three-part routine including the school fight song, a cheer and freestyle dance; and hip-hop.
Coach Nicole Meyer said qualifying was only half the battle.
“We spent a long time fundraising to get us there,” said Meyer, a BHS alum who was part of the school’s dance team as a student.
“It’s quite the feat to take this team all the way to Orlando... plane tickets, Disney tickets, ESPN tickets, costumes— all of the above,” she said.
A few of the girls on the team take outside dance classes, Meyer said, but many have only trained in the school’s program with some of them having participated since sixth grade with the sister team at Bloomington Junior High.
Senior Nevaeh McGill left the cheerleading squad to join dance, saying the dance team has “brought her spark back.”
“I got close to everyone on the team,” she said. “Competing brings me a lot of joy.”
Senior Ella Kaiser said the team is under more stress with the extra preparation involved for nationals.
“But I think that’s good,” she said, adding their hard work will “show on the floor.”
Co-captains Addison Skeate, a sophomore, and junior Lynn Firmand have extra responsibilities like leading warm-ups and stretches, plus making sure everyone knows their routines back and front. They both said going to nationals gives the team long overdue recognition.
“We’re usually on the side supporting everyone else,” said Firmand, “so getting all this attention is new, but really exciting. Everyone on this team deserves it.”
The Bloomington High School Team competes at the UDA National Team Championships this weekend in Orlando. You can follow the team’s competition results online, including a livestream of the event, at varsity.com/uda.
