Since the beginning of the school year, they’ve been entertaining crowds at Bridgeport High School soccer and basketball games. Now it’s time for members of the BHS Danceline to shine.
Saturday, the team will take the stage at Lincoln High School to compete with those from other area high school. The competition will feature categories in hip hop/funk, kick, pom, jazz and open dance, all in which BHS will compete. Awards will be presented in each category. To be eligible for the grand champion trophy, a team must compete in every category.
“It’s definitely been a challenge to come up with five different routines and make them all visually interesting and different,” said Coach Cindy Timms Pulice.
The team’s pom routine was, in part, learned during the Eastern Dance Association instructional camp, held in August. Pulice contributed additional choreography to bring the routine to required competition length – between two and three minutes. Pulice also choreographed the jazz and kick routines. Co-captains Megan Blount and Kylie Frame, along with some of the juniors on the team, choreographed the hip-hop number with some help from Albert Altovilla, contemporary dance instructor at Annabel Timms School of Ballet. All of those routines have been performed during soccer and basketball season.
Brand new and choreographed by Altovilla is the team’s “open” dance.
“Open is anything that can’t really fall in another category,” Pulice said. “It can be something unique. I’d say this is lyrical contemporary.”
Spectators of Saturday’s dance competition will enjoy lively dance numbers, colorful dance attire and frequent costume changes.
Frame said she is really looking forward to it.
“It’s my senior year and actually my third time competing,” she said. “I just love competition and we work so hard, starting in August and dancing every month up until now. We have five routines and they’re all so different. It’s really fun learning and performing them for everyone – and competing.”
Frame said it’s evident how much the team has improved since August, yet all those long practices haven’t really been a chore.
“Every girl has grown as a dancer and that’s really cool,” she said. “We’re really like a family. We get along so well in practices and it’s always fun. We never complain – unless it’s like a 7 a.m. practice.”
Pulice agrees that it has been a great year.
“I’ve loved working with this group of girls. They are a hard working bunch and don’t complain. They have good technique, but they are willing to work on technique and have been a delight the whole year,” she said.
Winning Saturday’s competition would be a cherry on the cake, Pulice said.
“I hope we will in all five categories and take home first place,” she said. ‘But in the long run, I just hope the girls love performing and continue to grow as dancers.”
Pulice hopes members of the Bridgeport community come to Saturday’s event.
“It would really help to have a cheer section. Wear red and come support the team," she said.
Assisting Pulice with the team is Suzanne Pomeroy Randolph. Members of the 2014-2015 BHS Danceline are seniors and co-captains Megan Blount and Kylie Frame, juniors Hannah Stolzenfels, Madelyn Aloi, Emily Trickett, Kaylissa Lynch and Sarah Reppert; sophomores Autumn Fiest and Sarah Momen and freshmen Sydny Guy, Sophie Lopez, Madison Smith, Erica Baylon, Taylor Frame, Mackenzie Kress and Kim Morris.
Because of health issues, Stolzenfels is not competing, but she has continues to be an integral part of the team and has been instrumental in helping with rehearsals, Pulice said.
Other high schools participating in Saturday’s competition are Lincoln, Robert C. Byrd and North Marion.
Doors open at 10:30 with competition beginning at 11 a.m.
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