For six years, captain Kaitlyn McCord, senior, has been dancing, joining the middle school team before leaping into high school dance.

“I found my love for dance [from the] dance team, rather than on my own,” McCord said. “I feel like studio, recitals, or a ballet kind of thing that is definitely more individual-driven, you’re not a team, you’re just a solo person. I like the team aspect of it, rather than just going off and doing my own thing.”

A new captain this year, McCord views her leadership role as one of her biggest achievements.

“It made me really proud to show how far I’ve come,” McCord said. “It means a lot when you put so much effort into this team, and then you get to have a higher role.”

As the season ends, McCord, as both an upperclassmen and one of the two captains, is tasked with getting the underclassmen excited for the next season.

“We have really only underclassmen, and it’s hard to get the backing for next year. They need to step up, become leaders, and stay on the team and really have that passion,” McCord said. “[Me and Kathryn Anderson] have been encouraging them. We hear all the rumors of ‘blah, blah, blah is not coming back to the team.’ I’m selling them the dream to become a captain, because it’s so fun and it pays off. And so that’s kind of what me and [Anderson] are doing. We’re like, ‘next year, you’ll be doing this.’”

McCord believes that there are two main aspects of the dance team culture.

“There’s the closeness and togetherness of our team; we are a strong team. We’re goofy, we’re a fun, caring, supportive team,” McCord said. “But then you have that commitment aspect that’s eating away at that. But we also have our coaching staff right now eating away at that too. So it’s just trying to balance all of these things.” 

Throughout the year, the dance team works on their pop and hip hop routines, where they perform them at the state competition. This year, the team headed to state on March 24.

“Our goal currently is to one take those to state in March and then be able to perform them, but also get a high score and hopefully a trophy,” McCord said. “We’ve been working so hard, and it would be a really big accomplishment for [us]. [It] is a proud captain moment, just to see them perform with something that we’ve been working really hard on.”

Although her journey has come with some setbacks, Kathryn Anderson, senior, has been dancing since she was young, and she hopes to continue in the future.

“I have [been dancing] since I was five. It’s been pretty on and off, but I have always come back to it,” Anderson said.

For most athletes, injuries are part of their world. This is something that Anderson knows all too well.

“I tore my hip in two places four months ago. They said anterior and super-lateral. It’s definitely tested my mental health, as well as my physical health,” Anderson said. “It really has shown that I need to start listening to my body. I feel like this could have been prevented if I had listened to my body.”

Due to the injury, Anderson is finding alternative ways to participate with her team.

“I want to dance with my teammates, but if I can’t, I just want to be able to be there for my team,” Anderson said. “I want to be able to be there as a person to talk to, as a teammate, friend, or a mentor. My goal is to be there for my teammates and try to add to a positive environment.”

Before Anderson began dancing for the high school and taking private lessons at Lake Oswego Academy of Dance, it began as a way to fill time.

“My mom just put me in dance classes because it was something to do, and you could really start at any age. My first class was ballet,” Anderson said.

Since she began dancing for the team, Anderson believes she has learned many things about herself in and outside of dance.

“I’ve gained a lot of experience, and I’ve realized that I am a faster learner. If choreography is given to me, I can pick it up pretty fast,” Anderson said. “Dance has taught me to be really resilient, and I feel like as I’ve matured and grown up, I was able to gain a lot of experiences.”

Going above being a dancer, Anderson is also a team captain and enjoys helping her teammates.

“I always love helping other people and taking charge. I love being able to support other people in ways that previous captains have supported me. Just being able to be that person for younger dancers has been really rewarding,” Anderson said.

Beginning with ballet at age four, Petra Sullivan, freshman, has been dancing for the majority of her life. She started dancing in West Linn during sixth grade and is now on the high school team. As an experienced dancer, Sullivan has advice for those just starting out.

“[My tip for younger dancers is] being very confident when you’re dancing,”  Sullivan said. “Because when you’re not confident, you don’t perform well.”

Sullivan has suffered knee injuries throughout her dance career and has struggled with burnout and overtraining.

“I just wouldn’t let myself rest, and I would go 100% every time, and do it over and over again,” Sullivan said. “It makes you really tired, and it’s not good to push yourself [to that extent].”

To overcome that, Sullivan has adjusted her mindset and created a new system to keep herself from being overworked and from any potential injury.

“I just let myself know ‘okay, we’re gonna do this one 100%, and then next time, we’re gonna do like, 70 or 80,’ just pacing yourself,” Sullivan said. 

For Sullivan, dance isn’t all about the competition. The community is one of her favorite aspects of the sport. The team does parties and dinners to encourage team bonding. 

“My favorite dance memory is probably the Christmas party that we had this year,” Sullivan said. “We all got super close. We just had a bunch of fun activities, everyone was laughing, it was really fun.”

But bonding events aren’t always just fun and games; the dance team also does charity work, most recently at Northwest Children’s Outreach, a nonprofit organization in Beaverton.

“We go [there], and we make individual bags for kids in need, and they get shirts, pants, all that kind of stuff,” Sullivan said. “[This experience is important] because it gives back to people in our community, and makes us think about what other people are going through.”

Following her time on her middle school dance team, Evelyn Troxell, sophomore, joined the high school dance team last year, and had to adapt to the difficulty of high school dancing quickly.

When Troxell auditioned for the routine last season, she didn’t really expect to get in.

“In the fall last year, not everyone was going to be able to perform, so we had to try out, and our coach was like ‘freshmen, don’t assume you’ll get on the team,’” Troxell said. “Just be there, have fun. And I was one of the only freshmen [who] actually made both the teams. It was really cool getting to dance with the upperclassmen, to dance like them. It definitely made me grow really fast.”

Going into her sophomore year, Troxell got an injury as she went into the new season. She then had to learn how to work with the injury, while also trying not to worsen it.

“I got a really bad injury in my knee at the start of the season, and it was really hard to kneel on it and put pressure on it, so I had to figure out how I could still do all the movements and still go full out while not making my injury worse,” Troxell said. “It’s definitely gotten better. It hasn’t gone away, but I have figured out how to dance around it and still be able to push myself without injuring [myself] more.”

At the end of each season, the team participates in one final competition, something Troxell anticipates.

“I’m mostly just looking forward to state. My coach really hypes it up all year and really pushes us,” Troxell said. “We’re almost there at state, we’re almost there.”

Aiming to continue her passion for dancing in the future, Troxell hopes to be a background dancer in big performances.

“I want to do half times in college for football games,” Troxell said. “I don’t know if I want to keep doing competitive dance when I’m older, but still getting to show it off, getting to perform in front of a crowd, would be cool.”

Even though Troxell sees the team as more competitive, she believes that there is more to dance, which kids should keep in mind as they graduate to the high school dance team.

“I want to show the middle schoolers that are coming up to this high school team that it’s more than just all this pressure,” Troxell said. “It is definitely a step [up] from middle school, but it’s so much more than just competitive. You get to meet so many cool people on the way, and you really get to connect. I just want to show them that it’s fun and not something they have to dread every day.”

After almost two years of being on the team, Troxell has some advice for future members of the team as they come on.

“You shouldn’t compare yourself to other dancers,” Troxell said. “You shouldn’t be like, ‘oh, I have to do it like this.’ Everyone has their own unique style, and that’s what separates all of us. I think that I had to learn that last year, especially being a freshman. They all had so much more experience than me, and I just had to realize that I can’t dance like them, and so I just have to try my best, and it’s gonna look better if I do what I can do.”

Starting dance at the middle school level, Jolene Rosborough, sophomore, achieved her greatest dance accomplishment during her final middle school season, where she was a team captain.

“Being a leader in my eighth grade year of middle school was a big deal,” Rosborough said. “It was a super good experience to be a captain, because it was really fun to be a leader and to have your own family be a part of it.”

Growing up, Rosborough participated in both soccer and dance, but there was a distinct difference between the two.

“I feel like the community really separated [dance and soccer],” Rosborough said. “For soccer, I only did rec, so it didn’t really feel like a team, because you weren’t together for very long, and dance is just such a team. It’s so fun because you have so many friends.”

Because the high school dance season is longer than what Rosborough was used to, she has had to adjust to the time change.

“In middle school, it’s shorter seasons: September to March. But for high school, it’s almost year-round: August to March,” Rosborough said.

During the offseason, Rosborough continues to dance individually with a local dance studio, rather than with the high school team. 

“I sometimes take some summer classes at Dance Vision, but that’s just when I’m not doing dance [with the school],” Rosborough said. “They help me build technique and gain new tricks and skills.”

Throughout her dance career, Rosborough has faced obstacles that she has had to overcome to keep dancing.

“I’ve definitely had smaller injuries that I’ve had to push through throughout dance,” Rosborough said. “I wouldn’t say big time injuries, but ones that you just have to push through and keep going.”

Rosborough has found this to be a difficult part of dance, as she’s not able to fully participate in team camaraderie.

“It’s definitely hard, because you want to give 100% for your team, and when you can’t, it’s difficult, because you feel like you’re letting them down,” Rosborough said. 

For the remainder of the season, Rosborough has a few goals in mind she wants to accomplish.

“I want to get my splits and gain more flexibility,” Rosborough said. “As a team [I want to] get closer and just have fun at state while building friendships.”

Last year, the team had a party to celebrate the beginning of their season, and Rosborough recalls it as one of her favorite memories. 

“All of the team bonding events are my favorite. I really enjoyed freshman year when we had a pool party at one of the captain’s houses because it was super fun,” Rosborough said. “As a freshman, I was scared to come in and be with all these older kids, but then they showed me that I didn’t have to be scared because it was just super fun.”