Golddusters shine at dance camp
Lakeside High School’s Junior Golddusters garnered a number of honors and distinctions during a recent Universal Dance Association camp in Jonesboro.
The team earned a Superior Team trophy, UDA Most Improved Team trophy, second-place trophy for their home routine, an excellence ribbon for the home routine and a bid to the 2018 UDA National Dance Team Championship in February at the Walt Disney World Resort near Orlando, Fla. Team members earned 47 superior ribbons, 11 excellence ribbons and 38 superior drill down ribbons.
The Junior Golddusters consist of 20 rising eighth- and ninthgrade students at the high school. Lakeside Primary School firstgrade teacher Kim Goslee and paraprofessional Kali Hester are entering their third year as the team coaches.
Rising freshman Katelyn Hartsell is the team colonel. She was named second runner-up in the final drill down evaluation and won 12 superior drill down ribbons during the camp.
Rising freshmen LaShiya Martin and Annabelle Simmons received All-American medals and invitations to dance in the 68th annual H-E-B Thanksgiving Day Parade through downtown Houston, Texas. Hartsell and eighthgrade student Allie Ilenfeld were also nominated for All-American.
Position titles were changed for the upcoming school year to provide more leadership opportunities and reflect the team’s similarities to a drill team. The team emphasizes more precision for its drill down performances.
“It focuses on your listening skills and really tuning in to what they are saying,” Hartsell said.
“A dance team has more jazz moves in it and sometimes
more lyrical-types, leaps and pirouettes,” Goslee said. “That is something we do not traditionally put in our routines. We like to focus on halftime performances that are crowd-pleasing.”
Rising freshman Allie Rowland is the team’s lieutenant colonel and Simmons is one of two team majors, along with fellow rising freshman Antasia Jones. Ilenfeld is the first lieutenant and the second lieutenant is Gabrielle Faulkner, who is also entering the eighth grade.
The team’s other rising freshmen are Lauren Boston, Lilly Crabtree, Olivia Dodd, McKenna Kline, Ava Mitchell, Sophia Shunk and Gracie Young. Members of the team entering the eighth grade are Alazae Allen, Emily Halpin, Jadore Linwood, Savannah Maybrey, Catriona Morcan and Skyler White.
Only 14 students performed with the Junior Golddusters in Goslee and Hester’s first year as coaches. No cuts were made and the team was determined by the previous coach.
More than 30 Lakeside students signed up for tryouts and 27 auditioned. The final team number was not determined by a particular size division, which is often a factor in selecting cheer squads.
“In competition at dance, you can choose to compete in a pom, a kick or hip-hop,” Hester said. “You can choose where you want to compete.”
Selected team members compete alone or in small groups in certain competitions. The upcoming school year will be the team’s first to compete together in group competitions.
“It did not really matter on the size of the number,” Hartsell said. “It was who was ready and who had the skill, instead of a specific number we focused on. You could have a few for a really good team. We would rather have a smaller team and be really good.”
Goslee and Hester first took the team to an open UDA camp last summer in Texas with more than a dozen teams from multiple states, including Arkansas, New Mexico, Tennessee and Texas. The open camp in Jonesboro included seven in-state teams.
The camp was held June
9-12 on the Arkansas State University campus and participants stayed in university housing. Goslee said it was an opportunity for students to learn about college life.
UDA was founded in 1980 as Universal Dance Camps to provide educational training for drill teams, which later became known as dance teams. Summer camps are offered across the United States and allow students to learn directly from UDA staff members. Teams are taught routines, technique, conditioning and other activities with an emphasis on team growth and improvement.
The camp provided the Junior Golddusters with an additional opportunity to refine their techniques with UDA instructors. The team attends a class each week during the school year to work on technique with Jennifer Vaughn of the Diamond Dance Company.
Instruction at the camp began at 8 a.m. and ended at
8 p.m. with short breaks for lunch and dinner during the day. Goslee said teams practiced outside of their housing until curfew.
“We had to be back in our dorms by 10:30 p.m., but some of us would stay up and keep practicing,” Hartsell said.
Evaluations were held on the final two days of the camp. All activities, evaluations and an awards ceremony were held in the Red Wolves’ Convocation Center arena.
The Junior Golddusters won the Super Spirit Stick on the second day of the camp and received a decorated UDA Spirit Stick each night. The officers were invited to perform at Walt Disney World and the team received bids to perform in the pregame of the Buffalo Wild Wings Citrus Bowl in Orlando on New Year’s Day and at halftime of the Arkansas Razorbacks’ home game against New Mexico State in Fayetteville.
“We were pumped,” Hartsell said. “You go through that, you work for camp, you get frustrated and you think, ‘Is this really going to be worth it all?’
“You hear that, you hear you get a bid, they want you to come and you think, ‘That’s amazing. It all paid off.’ It felt really rewarding.”
“As coaches, we were screaming our heads off we were so excited and proud of them,” Goslee said.