WHHS is known for its multitude of clubs and sports teams. One team that is fairly young but still working their way to success is the dance team.

Lael Ingram, ‘24, has been dancing for ten years and joined the dance team this year. Ingram is enjoying her first season on the dance team and her love for dance only makes it more fun.

“I just love the energy and all the people here. Dancing is also something I have always really liked,” Ingram said.

However, dancing does come with its obstacles. “My body is always sore because it is a lot of hard work, but I always just try and keep a positive mind set. People here on the team help me keep that positive mind set,” Ingram said.

Corinne Adams, ‘24, did ballet for nine years before quitting. This is Adams’ first year on the WHHS dance team.
The dance team here is also open to new ideas and is all about variety. “The best part about this dance team is that it’s not as strict as my ballet classes. There is also a lot of different genres which makes it a lot more interesting and fun,” Adams said.

However, Adams did have some difficulty adjusting to this new team. “I took a break from ballet for a while and sometimes the moves are a little difficult, but you get the hang of it pretty quickly.” The junior high students on the team are enjoying their season so far on the dance team. They hope to accomplish their goals this season and in future seasons to come.

Carolina Tollefson, ‘24, has been dancing for WHHS dance team for two years and set some goals herself for motivation.

“I really just want to get all my splits down and just become more flexible in general,” Tollefson said.

These dancers are all talented in different ways and couldn’t have done it without some guidance. Jamie Moore has been coaching since she was in high school but is in her second season of coaching the WHHS dance team.

Moore coached an all-star team in Chicago for three years.

“My favorite part of coaching is seeing how the dancers grow and see their progress throughout the years. I’m lucky enough to have some of them for six to seven years. Seeing how they develop their technique over the grades is amazing,” Moore said.

Moore has no limit to her hopes and dreams for her dancers. “I want to improve from what we did last year. We are still a very young team and we have a lot of middle schoolers, so just to continue to improve on the momentum we started with in my first season of coaching last year,” Moore said.

The dance team has been competent in avoiding complications and issues this season, but if there are troubles within the team, they do they best to face it head on.

“I feel that any sports teams faces struggles but we luckily haven’t experienced anything major. Just getting everyone here when they are balancing school, other clubs, sports and activities is always difficult. We always use our time wisely and the best that we can, since it is limited,” Moore said.

Moore motivates her dancers to just do their best and push to their full potential but also to enjoy and gain the love of dance.

“I think it’s important just to make sure we come back from those struggles and just remind everyone why we’re here. A lot of my motivation comes from if you’re doing something, do it right. If you’re here and spending the time, you might as well make it a productive practice,” Moore said.

The dance team set goals at the end of the last season and the beginning of this season. Because of this a lot of them were able to do better in not only the competition but throughout the season.

The dance team has an upcoming competition and set goals for this event as well. “We have our Eastern Cincinnati Conference (ECC) competition in February and we are hoping to move up one spot in the rankings that we get from the competition,” Moore said. Moore’s team placed second to last at their competition last year, and they will work their hardest to beat that ranking while also having fun.

Be sure to check out the dance team at the ECC competition or find more information about the team on the WHHS website.