Local dance teams show skills at Geneva High

The energy was hot inside Geneva High School on Sunday as 61 dance teams from all over the Chicago area competed in the Team Dance Illinois Regional Championship.

In addition, 15 teams of dancers in grades four to nine performed in a youth category.

Spectators saw nearly 113 performances from teams that came from as far as Antioch and Libertyville, and as close as Geneva, Batavia, and St. Charles East and North high schools.

At the end of the day, judges awarded trophies to Neuqua Valley Hip Hop for technical performance and to Aurora Central Catholic Open Dance for artistic performance.

Dance Force Junior Elites of Huntley was named grand champion.

Members of all of the dance teams have been practicing, performing and competing since June.

In addition to competitions, the teams perform at many school athletic events throughout the year. Their seasons will wrap up at next month's state finals.

"Teams are pretty experienced at this point," said Edison. "Now is the time it's really competitive. It boosts their energy."

Participants competed in several different dance categories including lyrical, open dance, kick, hip-hop and poms.

Dancers sacrifice a great deal of time preparing for competitions, which most say they don't mind.

"It's worth it to make it to state," said Geneva dance team captain Brittnie Bowers.

Batavia High School senior and dance team member Kyley Cikesh participated in three performances Sunday. Although her school is commonly a Geneva High School rival, she was very impressed with them as competition hosts.

"It's so well done, and they were so nice to us," she said.

With or without a trophy, dancers find competitions like this one extremely rewarding.

"We worked really hard," Cikesh said. "We just danced our hearts out."

This is the first time Geneva High School's dance team has hosted such a competition.

"This was a chance to show off Geneva, our community and high school," said varsity dance coach Katie Edison. "We have such a great facility."

"It's more comfortable performing at your own gym," said Geneva dance team member Amanda Wlezien, a sophomore.