Woodbury dance team: Royals show ‘power, determination’ in season finale

Woodbury High School’s dance team concluded its season Saturday at the Section 3AAA championships in Bloomington. The Royals, whose high kick song was, “Baby I’m a Star,” and jazz song was, “Beautiful,” finished in 14th place in both categories.

The team had an outstanding inaugural year as a competitive team, said Woodbury coach Ashley Wolf.

“We went in with power, determination and pride in what we have accomplished this year,” Wolf said. “The coaching staff is extremely proud of the extreme progress we have made towards the ultimate goal of being an amazing competitive dance program at Woodbury High School.”

Each high kick team in Saturday’s competition had to have at least five, but no more than 34, athletes, while each person must complete 50 to 75 high kicks above the waist. Judging criteria includes 30 points for kicks (technique, height and difficulty), 20 points for execution (placement & control and degree of accuracy), 20 points for choreography (visual effectiveness and creativity and practically of content), 20 points for difficulty (choreography & combinations and formations & transitions) and 10 points for routine effectiveness. Teams are then ranked by how many points they received out of the 100 possible points.

There were seven judges at Saturday’s competition. The best rank and two worst ranks given to a team were thrown out in order to eliminate perceived bias or judging inconsistency. The remaining four rank scores were added and determined teams’ placement.

Spring Lake Park won the high kick competition with a rank score of 4 (four judges ranked it as “1”), followed by Centennial with a rank score of 10 and third-place Eagan, which had 11. Woodbury was 14th with 55.

For jazz competition, teams may have between five and 26 competitors and performances may not have more than five kicks. Judging criteria includes 30 points for jazz skills (technique of turns, technique of leaps & jumps, and difficulty of skills), 20 points for execution (placement & control and degree of accuracy), 20 points for choreography (visual effectiveness and creativity and practically of content), 20 points for difficulty (choreography and combinations) and 10 points for routine effectiveness.

Spring Lake Park also won the jazz category, earning a rank score of 4. Second-place Eagan had 8.5 and Centennial was third with 13.5. Woodbury was 14th with 53.

The event marked the final prep competition for seniors Kelsey Gilbertson, Alyssa Anschutz and Allison Herzog. Gilbertson and Amanda Claphan were captains.

“We look forward to next year’s season to take what we have learned and better ourselves for the upcoming season,” Wolf said. “We plan on taking 7th through 12th graders on our competitive dance team for the 2012-13 dance season to create strong teams and hopefully develop a junior varsity competitive team.”

Tryouts for the 2012-13 team will be from 3:30 to 5 p.m. April 3-6 at Woodbury High School.

Tags: sports, dance, woodbury, royals, prep, updates