Dance convention was supported by California Association of Dance/Drill Team Directors (CADTD) and took place at Sonora High on Oct. 18. CADTD is a non-profit organization that holds many events, like dance convention, to help dance and drill teams learn new dance styles and bond as a team and with others through their events.

The dance convention is a time for dancers to learn new styles, bond as a team and get a first look at other teams they will be competing against.  Many members described the overall experience and atmosphere as being positive.

“The environment is really nice because everyone is a dancer, and they know how everyone feels,” dance team co-captain and senior Kayla Djen said.

Members of the dance team also had a chance to see how students from different high schools, or future competitors, performed in comparison to themselves.

“I need to challenge myself more as a dancer by taking classes even if I’m intimidated; I think this also goes for the whole team,” dance team member and sophomore Bridget Nagel said.

The dance team was able to learn many dance styles, such as ballroom, hip-hop and contemporary from this experience.

“I wanted to do something different so the first class I took was ballroom, and it was really fun…everyone was kind of on the same boat, since we all didn’t really know anything about ballroom,” Djen said.

Dance team members gained a valuable experience from this event as they were able to learn what the true meaning of dance was to them.

“This showed me that there is so much more to dance than what I already knew, like our style and face expression,”dance team member and  freshman Ashley Kim said.

After reflecting on the team’s performance in comparison to last year, Djen said, ”Technique-wise, I think we are — definitely from last year, I can tell we have improved, but there are always some schools that are just amazing out there.”

The annual dance convention was an opportunity for the dance team to great experience and learn many new skills. This year’s dance team gained much insight about dance styles and its competition for this year from dance convention.