Lancer Dancers’ New Dance for Nationals

Friday, January 29 is not only the biggest basketball game of the Varsity boys’ season but the debut of the Varsity Lancer Dancer’s hip hop routine.

The team has been hard at work since August, perfecting the dance every day for nationals.

“We get to school every morning at 7 a.m. and we use that time before school to warm up so we can really focus in on our dances,” Varsity captain Emma Olander said.

With a little less than a month until the big day of nationals, the girls hope to match the titles received in years passed, last year coming in second place by only .6 points.

“We really want that first place trophy and that jacket,” Olander said.

The routine is much more technical than their regular season dances.

“It’s a lot of visuals, special formation changes and technical aspects, so we’ve been working hard on getting those all to come together very clean and precisely,” Brooke Erickson, another team captain said.

The lancer dancers are excited to perform for the student section in preparation for the nerves of a big crowd at nationals.

“The Rockhurst game is great because it prepares us for dancing in front of others instead of just our parents,” Olander said.

It’s not all nerves, however. This is the biggest dance of their season and the girls couldn’t be more thrilled to perform.

“We’ve been counting down the days for Rockhurst for over a month,” Erickson said. “There’s a huge countdown on the whiteboard, and we change it every day.”

One of the many surprises of this dance for the audience is the new theme the dancers have each year. From astronauts to superman, the theme has always been a crowd thriller and they are excited to unleash their new theme.

Though they can’t give much away, the Lancer Dancer twitter account has been giving away hints as to what the theme will be in the days leading up to the game.

“Everyone asks ‘Oh what will they do this year?’ because previous years, they’ve always had such cool costumes,” Olander said.

“It’s just really fun to be able to work together every day with the same 20 girls…it bring us all together and there’s really no one else I would rather be together 24/7 with,” sophomore Katie Faught said.