Following a hiatus, the AHS dance team is making a comeback.

Last year, the dance team was unable to perform because of COVID-19 restrictions, but now it is starting back up again.

“Dance team is a club and community where students come together to create choreography and group dances for the basketball halftime shows,” senior Chloe Carpenter said. She and fellow senior Maisie Bailie are co-captains of this year’s dance team.

“It’s a great club to be a part of if you want some sort of community,” Carpenter said. 

Bailie added, “Our whole mission is to have fun.” 

Aside from creating an enjoyable environment and a welcoming community for members, the dance team aims to “show diversity within our school, and allow people to explore their artistic characteristics through dance,” Carpenter said.

“If you have dance experience you should join,” Carpenter said. Having special skills and talents, like being able to do flips or being flexible, would also be useful.

Although having prior experience is always beneficial, it is not required in order to join the club; everyone is encouraged to participate. 

“Honestly anybody should join,” Bailie said. “I joined dance team with little-to-no experience in dance, but I was able to pick up the steps.” 

Carpenter agreed with Bailie, saying, “Even if you don’t have experience in dance, if you know how to listen to music and express your art form through music, then you’ll be fine.”

Despite the dance team being inactive during football season this year, basketball fans can still expect to see them perform a self-choreographed dance during a three-minute slot at halftime for both boys’ and girls’ varsity games, according to Bailie. “We like to use songs that we know high schoolers will know, like a lot of throwback songs.”

She and Carpenter added that since they are “starting again from scratch,” tryouts will be on Monday, Oct. 18 and Wednesday, Oct. 20 from 4:15- 5:30 in the cafeteria.

The two-day auditions will include skills like turns, kicks and leaps. The co-captains will teach half of a dance on Monday, and auditioners will be expected to learn the rest of the dance by video so they can perform it on Wednesday. Auditioners should also come wearing athletic clothes and sneakers or jazz shoes.

Members can expect practices after school on Mondays and Wednesdays until 5:30- 6:00 p.m.

Game days will entail a bit of extra practice and team-building. “The weeks that we have games we will come in early before the game, run through the dance a couple times, eat dinner together as a group, and then go out and perform,” Bailie said.

Carpenter stated one of her goals this year is to ensure the dance team can continue once she and Bailie graduate. “Since we didn’t have dance team last year, we’re hoping that we keep it up and going for the rest of the years to come.”

If interested in joining, contact Chloe Carpenter at [email protected] or Maisie Bailie at [email protected].