Dance Team

Eden Prairie Pom Squad members recently helped out with Operation Christmas Child, an organization that collects and distributes Christmas gifts for children in need.

Filling one standard shoe box for a child and sending it to a collection center is the first step. National Collection Week concluded Nov. 24, and more than 7.6 million gift-filled shoe boxes were processed at six regional collection centers.

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The Eden Prairie High School dance team’s kick routine placed third at Saturday’s Lake Conference Championships. Combined with a second place Jazz finish, Eden Prairie placed second overall.

Saturday, the Eden Prairie High School dance team was looking for change, a change in the Lake Conference standings and a change in how judges had been scoring their routines.

Eden Prairie got change all right, but not the ones they were looking for.

It was Eastview's title to lose going into the Lake Conference dance team championships on Saturday.

The Lightning held off three very good challengers to take home the top trophy.

Eden Prairie finished in second place in the overall team standings, with Chaska and Burnsville tying for third place.

Eastview won the varsity jazz/funk competition, with EP second and Burnsville third.

The Blazettes rose up to third place overall thanks to their first- place finish in high kick/precision. Eastview was second, followed by Eden Prairie.

With the Lake Conference Championships yet to take place (Staturday, 11 a.m. at Bloomington Kennedy High School), the Eden Prairie High School dance team is still in the thick of things.

Monday, Eden Prairie ended its four-meet Lake Conference regular season with a first place High Kick finish, edging Chaska by the slimmest of margins.

Chaska's dance team checked off two team objectives at the second and final Lake Conference jazz/funk meet on Tuesday.

The Hawks, dancing to the latin medley "Cha-Cha-Chaska," finished second again to Eastview in the five-team side.

Apple Valley finished third on that side, followed by Lakeville South and Bloomington Kennedy.

"We had a much better performance from the week before, and it felt great," Chaska coach Kris Rydland said. "We went up by two points per judge; that was another one of our goals."

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With its wild hairdos and “Sha-Zungle” beat, Chaska’s dance team was hard to ignore last season.

The Hawks stepped to second place in the Lake Conference season - their best Lake Conference finish ever – and kept going from there.

Chaska collected a Section 2-3A high kick/precision title and made the finals of the state Class 3A meet. The Hawks then nailed their final routine to finishing a very close second to perennial power Burnsville, and ahead of defending champin Eastview.

But there’s one sure thing about competitive dance: a team cannot do the same thing twice.

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By Vicki Bont

The Chaska dance team is off to a strong start, a season after winning the section high kick/precision title and finishing as the Class 3A state runner-up.

Chaska High School Hawk varsity dancers Christina Hamari, Jillian Bagley and Becca Porter captured the Duet/Trio Division of the Miss Dance Team Minnesota on Sunday at Eastview High School.

Sign of winter approaching: high school dance teams began practices this week to prepare for the competitive season.

There is another event that has dancers kicking up their heels.

The seventh annual Miss Dance Team Minnesota competition takes place Sunday at Eastview High School.

By Keighla Schmidt
Manicuring Dick Hanson Field in Bob Pates Stadium at Burnsville High School may be a thing of the past.

On Oct. 9, the solicitation of bids for synthetic turf was unanimously approved by the Burnsville-Eagan-Savage School Board, with members Todd Johnson and Gail Morrison absent.

Chaska's fall dance club team performed during halftime of the Hawk football opener on Aug. 28.