At Owatonna High School, the dance team has begun their 2024-25 dance season. They started training for the season in the middle of June, which kicked off their summer season. In November, they began their regular season practices.
In this year’s season, the ODT is hosting the Big 9 competition. They had a home invite last year and were excited since it was the first home invite at OHS. Knowing they will compete in one of their biggest competitions, hosting at home is very exciting and calming to the team.
Senior Sophie Woodfill said, “It helps put everyone at ease as we are familiar with the gym.”
ODT has goals of placing first overall in the Big 9 competition and improving in their section as well. To achieve their goals, they have to put tremendous work and dedication into their dances to help carry their way to placing first in the Big 9.
Senior Maren Smith said, “Looking back, this would seem like an impossible goal four years ago.”
Big things happened last year for ODT. Their varsity kick dance got the highest score they had ever received. This was a huge accomplishment for the program. ODT is hoping to beat that achievement this upcoming season. By achieving that goal, it proved to the team that hard work and dedication does pay off.
A change that is happening this year for ODT is the team not setting expectations for themselves about winning certain competitions. Instead they are focusing on improving their scores in every competition to hopefully reflect in their placements for the season.
This school year, the team is doing something a little different. Since there are many seniors on the team, they don’t have captains. Instead, they have a “dream team” that includes all 10 seniors for the year. The dream team’s job is to help with the overall season and work towards making this season the best for all members.
As a dream team member, senior Norah Kath said, “My goal is to grow in team bonding this season and make our team feel like a huge family with positive attitudes all the time.”
As it gets closer to their first competition, ODT are practicing every day after school hoping to perform at the highest level for their competition. They have two dances to compete in Burnsville, varsity kick and varsity jazz. Going into the competition they hope to feel confident walking on and off the dance floor.
ODT has their first competition on Nov. 16 in Burnsville.
