By STEPHANIE BUNKER
Moapa Valley Progress
Moapa Valley High School Dance Team, Pirate Motion, spent last week gearing up for their upcoming year of halftime shows. For 7 hours Monday through Friday the team gathered at the Moapa Valley High School gym to learn, sweat, and train together, becoming a unified dance team.
Pirate Motion Coach Anjie Lee has found that holding their own dance camp is cost effective and better for their team to concentrate on preparations for the upcoming year.
“We can control and have dances we want,” said Team Captain Keely Watkins. “And, I know we also like to sleep in our own beds at the end of the day.”
The team learned four new dances during the week which were choreographed and taught by members of the community. Keshia Phillipines choreographed a hip hop dance, Rachle Lee did a pom routine, Amber Leavitt taught a military dance, and Keely Watkins made up a kick line.
Lee explained that the team had 4 hours to learn each dance. The girls learned a dance every day for the first 4 days, she said.
The team also spent the first part of the day with warm ups, partner work-out, learning dance technique, and playing a get to know you game. Following lunch the choreographer then came to teach the dance.
On Friday the team spent the morning warming up and reviewing the dances they had learned. Then in the afternoon the girls celebrated the end of the grueling week with a swim party.
Maddie Curtis, the other team captain, said she loves to learn technique and enjoys the new dances.
Many of the team members spoke up about how sore they became after the first day. Abby Dursteler a freshman is new to the community; she joined the dance team to become more socially interactive. She said she has taken ballet classes and lyrical classes but has never been on a dance team before.
“I wanted to try the dance team even though I have never tried these styles of dance,” said Abby. “I’m hoping I make a lot more friends and be more physically active.”
“We spend more time with the team members than we do our family throughout the year,” Watkins said. “So I like the unity that we have.”
