Update: Simley Dancers Take Second at Conference Meet

Update: (Dec. 23) Simley came in second to Henry Sibley after a tiebreaker count.

See from the Thursday's meet.

Original story (Dec. 22) The Dance team is at the Classic Suburban Conference championship meet at Hill-Murray today ranked first.

This year the varsity kick/precision team is dancing to a Beastie Boys remix in black pants and a black and red jacket and the jazz team will don a brown one-piece body suit with an orange dress over it and dance to "Piece of My Heart."

Hours before taking the floor, two anxious dancers, captain and senior Kelly Gillut and junior Alex Johnson, took time to answer some questions about the high-stakes meet.

Q: You guys are ranked first. Does the team feel pressure with that ranking or what is the mindset going into the meet today?

KG: We let everyone know we all need to do what we’ve been doing in practice and do everything we can do and leave no regrets. Henry Sibley is our main competition and they’re doing well this year. They have a creative kick routine – it’s Harry Potter themed – and fun to watch.

AJ: We are all just nervous and are going to give it our all tonight and try to get conference champs.

Q: What are your favorite parts of the varsity dance performances?

KG: Kick is my favorite between the two (jazz and kick). We dance to two Beastie Boys songs and it’s fun for the audience and for us to get into.

AJ: Well, we all love the song. It pumps us up when we are out there dancing. For kick, we love (going into a) straight line. It’s what the crowd looks forward to and they go nuts. Also during the kick sets, I love the adrenaline rush we get from each other. For jazz, when the girls hit their fouettes together and the feeling that we are pushing and doing our best is my favorite.

Q: How do you know or what do you feel when the team is performing well? Describe what you feel when you finish a successful routine.

KG: We can just feel it and feed off of each other. Even if you dancing really well but someone else is struggling you can feel it so you have to try and get the positive energy up and spread it to everyone and leave it all the floor.

AJ: Relief and excitement. Once we exit the gym we look at each other and hug and smile. You just know you gave it your all and hope the judges liked your routine.

Q: How do you prepare and bond as a team for this kind of meet?

KG: We’re all really close in general. We’re good friends have always have been so that’s easy. As a captain, before we dance we make sure to tell everyone to have fun and give it all they’ve got and do everything like we have practiced and we’ll go far.

AJ: We have practice Monday-Friday for 2.5-three hours, and on some Saturdays when we don’t have a competition. For bonding, we give each other pep talks and cheers and sometimes we will do some bonding at someone’s house.

Q: What makes you most excited about this meet?

KG: Right now we’re on top and we know we’ve got at shot at winning.

AJ: We are in first and we prepared really hard for this meet and we know that we can win if we put our heart into it. We have a strong chance of winning this year and that makes us excited.