There’s a new dance team at Lightridge High School and the coaches and members are excited to embark on their upcoming season.
Ava Lalli, AP Calculus AB teacher and mathematics department chair, has taken her experience from the cheer floor to help in the creation of a new dance team at Lightridge. Lalli previously danced and participated in gymnastics before her interests led her to discover competitive cheer. After coaching in the cheerleading world for twenty years, Lalli became the first Lightridge head Varsity Cheer coach. After three years of coaching, she decided to step down from her position; however, she still wanted to be a part of the Lightridge community outside of the math department. Lalli was eager to find something that she could have a large impact on but still have flexible, less demanding hours.
“I would say that my specialty is still in the cheer world but they are very much incorporated and I’m excited to kind of take a turn and focus more on the dance aspect,” Lalli said.
Joining forces with Lalli is Health and Physical Education teacher Amanda Boss. Boss had experience with not only dance, but choreographing as well.
“I started dancing at the age of three and began teaching at the age of fifteen,” said Boss.
Boss desired to get back into teaching dance and she wanted to be a part of the newly found team after attempting to form one since the school opened.
After several rounds of auditions, the Lightridge Dance Team (LDT) was created and now consists of six members: two freshmen, three sophomores, and senior captain Scarlett Schuhart. Schuhart has over nine years of dance experience and was previously a member of Studio Bleu’s competition team as well as South Ridings Dance Academy, now called the Nova Elite Dance Alliance.
“I thankfully was able to audition,” said Schuhart. “As soon as I heard I jumped out, I was like, I have to do this. This is my only chance.”
Although LDT is called a “team” they are technically considered a club. Lightridge Dance Team has hour-long practices twice a week that require a great amount of discipline. Not only are the coaches choreographing numbers, but they have also allowed some of the girls on the team to add their own flair to the routines.
“We don’t have support and we’ll never be able to get the same kind of recognition and until we are made a sport, we won’t get the same kind of opportunities,” said Schuhart. “We don’t get funding and so we’ll always be kind of niche until we are treated like a sports team.”
The team hopes to compete in competitions like the Universal Dance Association (UDA) that takes place in Florida. However, until the team becomes more established, UDA Camp is a goal for the future where dancers can attend and learn routines throughout the summer and have the opportunity to receive an invitation to the Florida Competition later in the year. LDT is still a developing team, so everything they need in order to get the team off of the ground is either funded from the coach or out of the dancer’s pockets.
In the meantime, the team is learning three different routines to prepare for their first performance in December at the home basketball game against John Champe.
