back row, l to r: Julia Parker, Maegan Measel, Ella Booth, Piper Luccasen, Emilyn DeWaard, Ashlen Faust, Ava Ishee, Laney Flannagan, Jennie Kennedy and Sarah Strada (Coach) front row, l to r: Morgan Stephens, Mary Carmen McNeese, Ceile Jordan, Caroline Covington, Lia Kate Giffen, Mallory Ritchie, Katherine Crowe, Mary Nix and Riley Arnold
On Valentine’s weekend (Feb. 14, 15 and 16) in Orlando, Fla., the Vestavia Hills High School Junior Varsity Rebelettes dance team took home the national title at the National Dance Alliance National Championships.
The team’s 18 dancers competed in the jazz and team performance categories to take the title. “We’ve only been competing with two routines for the last three years,” says the Rebelettes junior varsity coach Sarah Strada. “They competed against some very well-established junior varsity programs. To be able to improve each year and then get this win is phenomenal!”
In the team performance category, the team performs four different dance styles—pom. high kick, jazz, and hip hop—with 30 seconds of each style. “The judges give feedback after the first round, and we go back and make adjustments to the routine based on their feedback,” Strada says. “We increased our score by four points for finals after making the adjustments. I was very proud of that.”
But the JV team wasn’t the only one to compete. The Rebelettes 15-member varsity squad competed in the gameday and large team performance categories and came away as the runners up in a very competitive field. The varsity team received the silver medal for their Large Varsity Team Performance routine and placed 11th out of 31 teams in the large varsity gameday division. “There were so many dance teams in the gameday category that there were three days of competition,” Strada says. “Both divisions included awesome teams from around the country,” says Charity Jones, the varsity Rebelettes coach and Associate Director of Dance Education. “We are very proud of our girls and their hard work to continue to excel in the highest level.”
