WATERTOWN, New York (WWNY) – Girls stretch for one of their last practices before a national competition in Syracuse Saturday.
It’s the YMCA dance team in Watertown, featuring the Black Diamonds and Gold Elite, the top-tier dance levels at the Y.
It’s their first year in competitions as a team, but certainly not their first year dancing.
“We’ve kind of broken through these walls a little bit,” YMCA dance director Hannah Mullin said, “and they just wanted something new to try.”
Mullin says they’re already off to a great start.
“Our Gold Elite team just started competitions this year,” Mullin said. “They scored very highly. They came home with four awards for their first competition ever.”
“It’s really an accomplishment that we’ve got this far,” dancer Breslyn Farney said, “like being on the stage is really cool.”
The team dances to a variety of genres, such as ballet, hip-hop, and contemporary.
The girls say it’s more than a dance team. When techniques are hard to get, they help each other out.
“We support them and we give them help,” dancer Maddy Havilaned said. “And it’s always really funny because someone makes a good joke out of it and everyone starts laughing.”
“I recognize that it’s not only learning to dance, it’s also making friends, having fun,” dancer Presley Irner said. “It’s like we’re all a great big family.”
The Y’s recreational dance teacher, Nichole Irmer, says the girls are all naturals at what they do.
“Dancing comes from the heart,” Irmer said, “also, I tell every girl I’ve met ‘you’re born a dancer.’ Every single one of these girls, whenever you see them dance, you see their hearts out here.”
She says she tries to help them develop in the genres where they’re the most passionate.
“My favorite genre is definitely hip-hop as well, because I feel very passionate about that,” dancer Reagan Meade said. “And it’s really fun to be really hitting it. And it’s just, like, really enjoyable.”
Following this weekend’s competition, the team will have a recital at the Fairgrounds YMCA on May 20.
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