Last month Knightline participated in their first competition of the season.


Although they failed to place in their poms dance, they were able to snatch fourth place for their hip-hop routine. Now they are taking what they learned from their first competition and using it to prepare for the St. Charles Classic on Feb. 2 and State later that month.
“Now we know what’s out there and what we need to do to be as good [as the other teams] or better,” senior Amber Friedman said.
In preparation for their upcoming competitions the team is having two-a-day practices the week before the competition, meeting before school at 6 a.m. and after school for two hours.
“The only time we are not excited is during those morning practices,” junior Lilly Williams said.
The girls plan to perform a hip-hop, pom, and novelty dance at the competitions. In hopes to improve their scores, coach Heather Hallvax hired two choreographers to rework the pom and hip-hop dances and to teach the girls the novelty dance. The St. Charles Classic will be the first time the girls compete with the military themed novelty dance.
“It’s just a different learning experience because its someone outside,” Friedman said. “Sometimes when it’s a person you know it’s easier to pick up on the dance.”
After watching other teams at the first competition, many girls were impressed with some of the routines. According to Hallvax, their main goal at the first competition was to simply get back into local competitions. Since they achieved their first goal, now the bar has been raised and the girls are working to improve themselves so that they can eventually be on the same level as some of the other local dance teams.
“There’s nowhere to go from here but up,” Hallvax said. “We’ve seen what we need to do, now we just need to do it.”