Dance earns its own spot in the competitive arena

Throughout the last seven years, I've spent one weekend during the month of March in a gymnasium/stadium.

Since I've covered high school sports, specifically basketball, for more than 25 years, it shouldn't come as a big surprise considering I've spent countless hours sitting on hard wooden bleachers.

But if you had told me in 2004 that I would be spending a March weekend in the stands watching a high school state dance competition for the next seven years, I probably wouldn't have believed it myself.

This past weekend, I watched my 17-year-old daughter Brittany perform in the fourth annual TeamDance Illinois State Championship competition as a member of the St. Charles East Drill Team at the Peoria Civic Center.

I'm sure most parents would agree that there's no greater thrill than watching your child take center court doing something they love - dance.

I count myself among the fortunate because I have had the opportunity to double my pleasure over the last seven years.

It all began in 2004 during my oldest daughter Devon's freshman year when St. Charles East's JV team competed in the Illinois Drill Team Association Junior Varsity State Finals at Charleston High School.

As a sophomore, she moved up to the varsity level and participated in two dances as St. Charles East captured the state championship in the Lyrical category and placed second in Hip Hop during the IDTA State Competition held at the University of Illinois' Assembly Hall in Champaign.

It marked the 10th consecutive year that the Saints returned home with a state title, a streak that was snapped the following season.

During her senior season in 2007, St. Charles East captured the Lyrical title at the inaugural TeamDance Illinois State Championship at Carver Arena.

Founded in 2005 by former St. Charles East drill team coach Kari Batka among others, TeamDance Illinois is an incorporated, non-profit organization dedicated to supporting all youth non-schools and school, JV and high school sponsored dance and flag teams through education, evaluation and competition.

According to its Web site, TeamDance Illinois is founded on the simple premise that the "coach is our customer."

Judging from the announced crowd, there were 5,000-plus paying "customers" in attendance as well.

Action kicked off at 7:30 a.m. when Lincoln-Way West took the floor to perform its Hip Hop dance in the Class A division (smallest schools).

I don't come from a long line of dancers in my family history but I would guess that a pre-dance warm-up that involved plenty of stretching would be especially vital at that time of the morning.

By the time the last dance took place at 6:06 p.m. (Glenbrook South-Class AAA Kick) - more than 2,000 students representing 120 teams had participated during the 101/2-hour extravaganza.

The list of state champions included Morris (A), Eisenhower (AA) and Minooka (AAA) in Hip Hop; Montini (A), Crystal Lake Central (AA) and Wheaton Warrenville South (AAA) in Pom; Civic Memorial (A), Geneva (AA) and Neuqua Valley (AAA) in Open Dance; Civic Memorial (A), Geneva (AA) and St. Charles North (AAA) in Lyrical; Morrison (A), Crystal Lake South (AA) and Maine South (AAA) in Kick; Morris (A), Vernon Hills (AA) and Barrington (AAA) in Open Pom; Stevenson in Short Flag; and Schaumburg in Tall Flag and Lyrical Flag.

Although it has often been difficult to suppress my competitive nature, I've grown to accept that the scoring of a dance competition is a fairly complicated process - one that is subjective in nature.

In other words, it's not as simple as putting a ball in a basket, crossing a goal line or scoring a run.

While my daughter and her teammates didn't return home with a trophy this past weekend, it shouldn't diminish their long list of accomplishments - the best of which was coming together as a team and creating special memories.

Since my 13-year-old daughter prefers softball spikes to dance shoes and my 9-year-old son has had his fill of watching girls dance - for now - it looks like my 7-year run of March Madness, dance-style, has drawn to a close.

I might even miss it a little bit.

csb4k@hotmail.com

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