Park dance team: Park dance team Wolfpack finishes with ‘season’s best’ performance

Park High School’s dance team concluded its season Saturday, Feb. 11, at the Section 3AAA championships in Bloomington, earning 11th place in both high kick and jazz categories.

“The team had performances that were their season’s best,” said coach Amanda Hemmingsen-Jaeger. “The girls ‘left everything on the floor,’ and [assistant coach Veronica Hemmingsen and I] could not be more proud of them. It was a great ending to my first season as a head coach.”

Saturday’s competition was the seventh and final season competition for the Wolfpack, whose high kick song was, “Undercover,” and jazz song was, “Love Don’t Love You.” The contest also marked the final prep competitions for 10 Park seniors, including two foreign exchange students: Carolina Chavez-Villarreal, Lexy Lamar (captain), Ali Manning, Katelyn Norton (manager), Rossana Nuzzolese, Alyssa Paige, Jessica Schabacker, Amy Struve (captain), Alyssa Thiery and Steph Vrieze (captain).

“Their talent and experience was a great asset to have this year, and they will be missed next season,” Hemmingsen-Jaeger said.

Each high kick team in Saturday’s competition had to have at least five, but no more than 34, athletes, while each person must complete 50 to 75 high kicks above the waist. Judging criteria includes 30 points for kicks (technique, height and difficulty), 20 points for execution (placement & control and degree of accuracy), 20 points for choreography (visual effectiveness and creativity and practically of content), 20 points for difficulty (choreography & combinations and formations & transitions) and 10 points for routine effectiveness. Teams are then ranked by how many points they received out of the 100 possible points.

There were seven judges at Saturday’s competition. The best rank and two worst ranks given to a team were thrown out in order to eliminate perceived bias or judging inconsistency. The remaining four rank scores were added and determined teams’ placement.

Spring Lake Park won the high kick competition with a rank score of 4 (four judges ranked it as “1”), followed by Centennial with a rank score of 10 and third-place Eagan, which had 11. Park was 11th with 44.

For jazz competition, teams may have between five and 26 competitors and performances may not have more than five kicks. Judging criteria includes 30 points for jazz skills (technique of turns, technique of leaps & jumps, and difficulty of skills), 20 points for execution (placement & control and degree of accuracy), 20 points for choreography (visual effectiveness and creativity and practically of content), 20 points for difficulty (choreography and combinations) and 10 points for routine effectiveness.

Spring Lake Park also won the jazz category, earning a rank score of 4. Second-place Eagan had 8.5 and Centennial was third with 13.5. Park was 11th with 44.

Hemmingsen-Jaeger said one of the main goals of the season was to grow and to develop the program – something she hopes to continue to see in 2012-13.

“This season was quite an experience for me,” she said. “I learned a lot about the type of coach the team needs, and the kind of program I would like to grow. I am looking forward to coaching the team next season, and continuing to develop the program at Park High School.”

Tags: sports, dance, park, wolfpack, prep, updates