Senior Heidi Strauss and her fellow team members feel the excited buzz on the school bus. The bus is headed to Fort Zumwalt North, where the Sensations’ last dance competition before state is being held. Strauss, who has been on the sensations dance team for four years, explains what regionals are in simple terms.
“Regionals are the first three competitions we have for our dance team,” Strauss said. “It’s just basically just mini-competitions to prepare us for state and nationals (our big competitions).”
The Sensations got first for their jazz dance routine, first for their mix dance routine, and second for their game day dance routine at their regional competition. Their recent success is most likely due to the dedication and effort that they put in during practice. Junior Elizabeth Kreifels, who has also been on the Sensations for two years, describes their rigorous practice schedule.
“We practice during the school week 3-4 times a week from 2:45-5 p.m. And we have practice every Sunday night from 4-8,” Kreifels said. “We are able to practice by performing at any basketball games we have during the week. At halftime we do our competition dances to practice performing on a gym floor in front of an audience.”
Despite all the time that the Sensations spend together, being on the same page is still something that the team has to heavily focus on, according to Strauss.
“We all need to be in the same mindset to push through the hard [practices] in order for us to be prepared for every performance that comes,” Strauss said.
The journey to regionals has clearly not been easy. Strauss shared the challenges the Sensations personally and as a team have experienced in preparing for regionals, and eventually their state and national competitions.
“Personally [my biggest challenge] has been stamina, because I don’t really love working out that much,” Strauss said. “Senioritis is really kicking in and I don’t always feel like going to practice, so I have to remind myself that all the work is worth it in the end.”
Kreifels then describes what’s next for the Sensations on the road to competing at nationals on February 24th in Kansas City.
“It’s obviously a really big competition [and it’s stressful] but also everyone is really excited. It’ll be fun to get to go away for a weekend and get to all hang out.” Krefiels said, “we’ve been working really hard and we’re making our final few changes in our dances. And we had a really good practice this weekend, so I’m thinking state is gonna go really well.”
Strauss summed up why the common misconception that dancers don’t work hard is completely untrue, and proves that the Sensations are worthy of the school’s support as they go into their bigger competitions.
“People don’t really see the work we put in. People [assume] that dance is [easy] and just fun all the time, but there’s way more strength that goes into it then people think,” Strauss said.
