While many spent summer hoping to achieve their perfect tan, team captain Sierra Blechschmidt spent hours with the Sage Creek Dance Company to perfect their choreography and be prepared for their first performance of the year, giving Sage Creek a taste of what their 2019-2020 season has to bring.

“We had a dance camp the week before school started so for like five days we were at school learning the dances for 5 or 6 hours, learning the dances and cleaning them,” Blechschmidt stated.

This season, senior and four-year dance company member, Sierra Blechschmidt has earned her spot as dance team captain. Blechschmidt hopes to improve the teams’ skills as well as their overall bond as a group.

“It’s a really cool experience,” Blechsmidt adds. “I get to be a leader on the team and work closely with our coach.”

Along with a new school year, the Sage Creek Dance Company is back with new members, coaches, and ideas to make this year their strongest year yet.

“We have a new coach this year, and we also have 4 new dancers, 2 of them are freshman,” Blechschmidt highlights.

In addition to hard-working dancers, a passionate coach has helped lead the team to a strong start to the season.

“[Mrs. Eichler] is really experienced and has a lot of the time for the program.” Blechschmidt includes, “[she] is very dedicated and we get to do a lot of new stuff that we didn’t get to do before.”

Along with an adept teacher, new additions to the dance team have also helped the team grow.

“This is my first year [on the dance team],” Sophomore Rachel Plotkin adds, “I dance at Carlsbad Dance Center, [and] I’ve been dancing there since I was seven, so eight years.”

Despite their diverse dance backgrounds, the dancers utilize their varying skill levels and work together to create unique and elaborate dances.

“We normally have a choreographer or someone on the team choreograph, and then we have a few rehearsals to practice,” Plotkin said.

Along with bonding in the dance studio, their time spent outside of dance allows for their connection during dances to be more powerful.

“Dance this year has been really good…we’ve been able to make a lot of progress with our team and have all just gotten really close,” Blechschmidt stated.

While it may be early in the season, the Sage Creek dance team is motivated and has set goals for the rest of the year.

“We’re performing at a lot more basketball games this year so we just want to really be prepared for all of those and make them even better than they have been in the past,” said Blechschmidt.

With new teammates and countless hours of practice, the Sage Creek Dance Company aims to improve as a group.

“I am just really looking forward to watching our team grow a lot,” Blechschmidt exclaims.