Cambridge High School dance team will compete in national dance competition

Kristi R. Garabrandt, The Daily Jeffersonian
·4 min read
Cambridge High School Dance Team co-captain Kiersten Keith-Hill demonstrates the proper way to do a dance move during dance practice.
Cambridge High School Dance Team co-captain Kiersten Keith-Hill demonstrates the proper way to do a dance move during dance practice.

Lilly Kuveikis, a junior on the Cambridge High School dance team, is excited and nervous for the opportunity to perform in a national dance competition.

Lily, along with the rest of the team, will head to the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex at The Walt Disney World Resort to compete against approximately 100 other dance teams from around the country Feb. 4-6.

This is Lily's first year on the team and she considers her teammates to be like family. That's what makes this competition special for her.

This will be the fourth year competing in the competition for Lainey Carpenter, a junior and co-captain, who started dancing in the eighth grade.

Lainey looks forward each year to seeing how each team is different from the previous ones.

"Even though the same girls are pretty constant, you always have new people come in and new people add a new mindset, like a fresh start," Lainey said. It's really exciting to see how they go in and how they are so eager to do the best that they can for the girls around who have experienced it. It's just a really special feeling to go there and do what you need to do."

Kiersten Keith-Hill, a senior and co-captain, said this year will be different from last year, because they added new girls that have never competed with them before.

Cambridge High School dance team member Lainey Carpenter flips teammate Lilly Kuveikis, during practice for the national dance competition.
Cambridge High School dance team member Lainey Carpenter flips teammate Lilly Kuveikis, during practice for the national dance competition.

"What I would say is really different is that our mindset has definitely changed from going through a pandemic while going to Nationals versus post-pandemic, coming out of one, it's kind of basically a restart for us.

The team is competing with three different routines, a hip-hop routine, a pom routine and a game day routine.

"Our routines this year are the best we have ever had," Kiersten said. "We are all really experienced with all three."

When the team started going to Nationals four years ago, they had only had one routine.

"Practices right now are very intense and we all have the same goal," Kiersten said.

The girls are practicing during the week for three hours at a time and up to eight hours on the weekends to prepare.

The team has been in multiple competitions this year, but they consider those as rehearsals for the Nationals competitions.

“Our team has been successful in competing with the nation’s best dance teams," said Jennifer Carpenter, volunteer head coach of Cambridge High School Dance Team. “We travel to the most competitive locations so that we can continue to get better and grow our program.”

Members of the Cambridge High Dance Team practice the jumps in their hip-hop routine as they prepare to compete in the National Dance Competition at The Disneyland Resort in Florida.
Members of the Cambridge High Dance Team practice the jumps in their hip-hop routine as they prepare to compete in the National Dance Competition at The Disneyland Resort in Florida.

This season, the team competed in Ohio, Washington DC, Michigan, and Pittsburgh to prepare for the season finale at the NDTC in Florida. The Cambridge High School Dance Team is recognized around the country due to its successful involvement on the Universal Dance Association (UDA) circuit.

According to Lainey, these competitions are basically for the team to gauge what the judges like or don't like and what part of their routines they need to tweak to get it right for the Nationals.

Kiersten noted that while the dance team doesn't get the same support the athletics teams do, it means a lot to the team to represent Cambridge and members take pride in their school.

“Our dancers compete at the top level with schools that are much larger than ours,” Carpenter said. “The Cambridge Dance Team represents Cambridge very well. The members of the dance team look forward to qualifying and attending the NDTC each year."

Carpenter also noted that one of the best things about competing in this competition is the potential for the dancers to be recruited onto college dance teams.

“UDA coordinates with college coaches to actively recruit high school athletes and provides resources to advance our dancers onto college dance teams," Carpenters said.

For more information on the National Dance Team Championship, visit www.Varsity.com. Varsity Spirit will live stream the championship on Varsity TV, a website dedicated to exclusive live coverage and video libraries of Varsity Spirit cheer and dance competitions. Videos of the routines are available for fans who were otherwise unable to attend, and full results listings will be available. The championship will air on ESPN2 and ESPNU in the spring. Viewers can check their local listings for air times.

This article originally appeared on The Daily Jeffersonian: High school dance team will compete in national dance competition