Getting ready for performances in December means hard work and running the dances until the Kings Dance Team members get them perfect. Sometimes only twice, sometimes over and over again. They commit 110%. All that work builds up to the performances and the rush and excitement of doing it for them as individuals and for the team. The girls on the dance team have been practicing since march.

“We have tryouts in May and then we start practicing. We have practices all summer and then competition ends in March so we have April and then we started again,” Junior Kaitlyn McCorkle said.

In July, they go to a four-day National Dance Alliance camp where they learn all their work. They are expected to memorize it quickly.

“You have to memorize and clean the whole dance in two days,” Senior Ella Hancock said. “[The camp] gives us an experience how to work fast [and] work hard to get everything memorized,”

Before tryouts in May, they go to clinics and have open gyms to help brush up on their skills after a month of nothingness. They’ll learn dance routines like pom (sharp jazz dance done with poms) and hip hop.

“We have a few days of clinics, which is where you get to work on your skills. And then we have a couple days where we learn material. So one day you’ll learn pom and one day we’ll learn hip hop, and then you just work on both of those. It’s a few days where you get to learn and work on your own stuff. And then you have the actual tryout day,” McCorkle said.

Recently, the team started working out at home to build up stamina before they start competing. To prove they are putting forth the effort they send in timelaspes of themselves doing the appropriate reps of the workout to their coaches.

“We work out every day we don’t have practice. Because if not then the end of our routine will look bad,” McCorkle said. “I think we all agreed, it’s really good for us to get into shape [and] really it’s only like 15 minutes out of your day.”

At practices, the team focuses on cleaning, where dancers go over the dance counts and clarify certain moves, their competition dances and it requires a lot of focus to get the work they need done.

“[We’ve been better about] staying on task and we’ve really got a lot done compared to past years I feel like, but I remember being younger it’s hard to keep up sometimes,” Hancock said.