Fouettes, double turns, c-jumps, backwards leaps, and kicklines; most people have no idea what these words mean. At Cameron High School, the Dance Team practices these moves every other day to get ready for their competitions.

The Dance Team performed at Lee’s Summit Dance Invitational this past weekend. “I think we did well. The dances looked great. As long as I knew and the girls knew we did the best we could, we always will be satisfied with our outcome,” said Captain Jessica Parra. Jessica has been to this competition before so she knew what was expected.

“Our first dance was called ‘Sweet Dreams’ and our second was called ‘Right Now’,” said Co-Captain Amanda Estep. Amanda helps run practice, helps critique, and polishes the dances.

A lot of hard work went into putting together the dances to be ready for competition on and off the floor. As Freshman Sabrina Parra would say, “Practice, practice, practice!” This is Sabrina’s first year on the Cameron Dance Team. “The week before [competition] we tried not to do anything stupid or dangerous. We didn’t want to get hurt, and we wanted to stay in good shape before the big competition. We also got a lot of sleep!” she said

“To prepare, the whole team practices together. [We had] special ‘cleaning’ days where we would just focus on one dance or a portion of a dance for the whole practice. I’d make them play ‘games’, as I’d like to call them, to strengthen their tricks and facial expressions,” said Jessica.

The Dance Team also performed these dances at past boy’s and girl’s basketball games. The team used halftime as trial runs to help get ready for competition. Not only did going over the dances help, but having a crowd also helped get the Dance Team pumped up and it got rid of any jitters they might have had. They knew their hard work would be put to the test soon.

The Dance Team headed to Lee’s Summit Saturday morning at 8 am. “Our first dance was at 11:55 am and our second dance was at 4:10 pm,” said Jessica.

The Dance Team performed a mix to a remix of the song “Sweet Dreams”. A little after 4, the team danced their jazz style dance to the song “Right Now”. The Dance Team ended up receiving fourth place for their mix and fifth place to their jazz piece. “Even though we didn’t get first place, we still did really well. I am so proud of the team for working as hard as they did,” said Jessica.

The Cameron Dance Team never ceases to entertain a crowd. They’re an inspiration and reminder to always try your best. It doesn’t matter if you win or lose because ultimately winning is about knowing you tried your hardest at what you love doing.