Batavia High dance team mixes community spirit with school spirit
Although the 2017-18 academic year is just beginning at Batavia High School, the Batavia High School Dance Team has been hard at work all summer.
The Batavia Dance Team has made an even more concentrated effort this year to give back to the supportive Batavia community.
Varsity coach Angela Fuqua said, "Our team feels the spirit of community from the giving people of Batavia all year long, so we feel it is important to give back to a community that continually shows us their generosity."
In early June, the dance team participated in Relay For Life at the Kane County Cougars stadium and raised $4,200 for the American Cancer Society. Soon thereafter, the team held "Tag Days" at the Batavia Jewel store, where they solicited food and monetary donations for the Batavia Interfaith Food Pantry totaling almost $900. In July, the dancers continued their support of the Batavia Food Pantry at their Little Pom Camp.
During the week-long camp, Batavia girls ranging in ages from kindergarten through middle school learn dance routines to perform at a Batavia football game. The campers donated 1,672 items to the food pantry, in addition to school supplies to benefit Batavia Chip-In. The dance team also will be volunteering at Feed My Starving Children and the National Alliance for Mental Illness (NAMI) 5K during the early months of the school year.
"As a coach, I feel it is important to integrate service into the Batavia Dance Team's program. We have discovered that from serving, the team has become an important part of our caring Batavia community," Fuqua commented.
Even with this extra focus on community support, the Batavia Dance Team continues to maintain its outstanding dance program. In late July, the dance team showed its excellence at an elite Universal Dance Alliance camp in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The varsity dance team was awarded the highest ranking of "Superior" for its home routine. This ranking earned varsity a bid to compete in Orlando, Florida at nationals in February 2018.
Varsity and junior varsity also had the highest ribbon averages in the drill down exercises at the camp. In addition to these exceptional team performances, many individual team members were recognized at the camp. Nine members of the team were named as All-American dancers at the camp and each varsity team member earned blue ribbons for their individual dance performances.
The Batavia Dance Team is looking forward to its competition season, where it will be hosting a home competition on Dec. 2, 2017 and Sectionals on Jan. 11, 2018.