Dance, along with the WHHS theater, music and visual arts programs, are all parts of fine arts that excel under our “stately dome.” Both beginners and trained dancers can take their pick from various types of dance offered here at WHHS. Dance Club, Dance Team and Step Team do their part to keep the essence of the art forms intact for current and future eagles.
Hip Hop Dance Club
The Hip Hop Dance Club (HHDC) is for students with no prior dance experience to experiment with the art form. Club leaders Chloe Lu, ‘24, and Kate Sampson, ‘24, say that their goal through the HHDC is to inspire all students to appreciate dance.
“We want to build a community of dancers who are interested in dancing and just having fun,” Samspon said.
Lu, Sampson and the other club leaders are responsible for choreography, scheduling performances and hosting practices.
“We love just being able to dance to whatever kind of music we enjoy,” Lu said.
Many members of the HHDC are also on the dance team, including Sampson.
“The main difference is that the dance team practices multiple times a week and we do a competition at the end of every year and we’re learning multiple routines,” Sampson said.
The HHDC does not participate in any competitions and they meet once a week, on Fridays after school in the forum.
During their practices, the HHDC prepares for their upcoming performances.
“We are planning our performance or showcase for the next pep rally. It’s gonna be a mix of some K-pop and hip hop songs,” Lu says.
The HHDC is excited to perform at the Winter pep rally and the Black Culture Club talent show.
Dance Team
This past pep rally on Sept. 24, marked the WHHS dance team’s first performance of the new school year along with their first performance with their new coaching staff.
The dance team, also called the Golden Girls, underwent an extreme makeover during the past year. Their previous coach, Jaime Moore, stepped down and head cheer coach, Landon Zellars, took on the dance team.
“He is really no nonsense. He makes sure we represent Walnut as best as we can,” dance team member Bella Gordo, ‘23 said.
Lael Ingram, ‘24, agrees saying, “Under the new cheer coaching staff, we’re kind of becoming a new team. We’ve gotten a lot stronger, and I feel like we’re stronger as a team now.”
The transition of joining the Cheer Team has gone smoothly according to Gordo. The Cheer Team and the Golden Girls stretch together at the beginning of practice before separating to practice their respective routines. The two teams also joined together for the pep rally with a combined performance.
“The cheer team is super supportive, they hype us up all the time. We really look up to them,” Gordo said.
This transition also brought a makeover to the Golden Girls’ costuming.
“We’re kind of getting a whole little upgrade when it comes to our style,” Ingram said “We’re getting new uniforms and we’re going to have pom poms.”
Ingram also mentioned that day-to-day practice changed significantly because of the merger with the cheerleaders. At the beginning of practices, the Golden Girls run campus laps and then they stretch with the cheerleaders.
“It’s a lot harder, and I feel like we really are accomplishing more,” Ingram said.
The Golden Girls were heavily focused on preparation for the pep rally that recently occured in honor of homecoming week.
“We’re just ready to show off what we got and to get everybody excited for the year. We are upping our game so we are excited to show everyone what we can do,” Ingram said.
The pep rally was the first time the Golden Girls have performed since they participated in the ECC, the Eastern Cincinnati Conference, in early 2021. The ECC is a competition between dance teams in other schools around Cincinnati. However, they did not place. This year, Ingram is confident that will change.
“We’ll be much more prepared and we’re really gonna put up a fight,” she said.
Step Team
The Step Team’s performances are an iconic and loved part of the WHHS pep rallies. However, they were not present at the Sep. 24 pep rally leaving a lot of unanswered questions for eager students.
Over the pandemic, Ohio released a rule saying that in order to be considered a team, there must be a coach. While the step team’s advisor, Ms.Brokamp, is a certified athletic trainer, she does not have a coach’s certificate.
Since the step team cannot officially operate as a ‘team’, it has joined with the Black Culture Club.
SENIOR Madisyn Ellis, co-president of the Black Culture Club, spoke on the new changes.
“It will just be like a subset of black culture club,” Ellis said.
Step Team will also have a different name, which will be voted upon at a later time.
SENIOR Tamia Palmer hopes these changes are temporary. Palmer was a member of the step team and is a co-president of the black culture club.
“We are actively looking for coaches,” Palmer said.
She hopes to find a coach in the coming weeks so that the team can get back to performing in pep rallies and basketball games.
“Our main goals are to get a full team and perform and get people interested to keep it going next year,” Palmer said.
All parts of dance at WHHS are ready and excited for the new school year.
