Last Thursday, Feb. 2, FHN’s Knightline dance team traveled to Orlando, Florida to compete in the annual nationals competition. The team competed in events on Saturday and Sunday and were able to visit the parks of Walt Disney World on Monday. The group returned Tuesday, Feb. 7, bringing home with them several accomplishments.

“We had a summer camp that was a week long and we competed there, and if we placed there we got to go to nationals,” senior Rachel Kamp said. “We won first place there, so we were able to go.”

In their division, Knightline competed five times with two different dances, Jazz and Hip-Hop, at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando. The team made it past the prelims to the semis, and eventually the finals for the Jazz competition. Despite not making it to the finals with their Hip-Hop routine, they were able to place twelfth out of 80 teams in the nation for Jazz.

“I think they’re going to try to improve our Hip-Hop dance [for next year] just to put some more tricks in it,” senior Rachel Ludwig said. “The energy is a really big thing for that dance just because it’s so tiring.”

Knightline hopes to reach their goal next year of making it to the finals with both of their Jazz and Hip-Hop dances. But for the seniors who will not be returning, the trip was an opportunity to say a final goodbye.

“The best part of the trip, especially because it’s my senior year, was walking out on the finals floor for the last time,” said Ludwig. “It was really cool to be able to do that because some teams go but they never have that opportunity. There’s a big castle and it a big thing to walk out of the castle with your team and being able to compete on that floor.”