Dancers as young as 8 gracefully stomped across the court. The gym echoed with cheers from the crowd and pounding music. The dancers swayed in sync, twirling white pompoms in the air.
Last week, U-High’s dance team hosted the Dance Kids Clinic for the second time ever, in which students in lower and middle school learned a choreographed routine. Along with members of the dance team, they performed the routine during halftime at the varsity boys basketball game on Jan. 24 and the varsity girls basketball game on Jan. 25.
Dance team coach Nichole Magliocco, a Lab P.E. teacher and an organizer of the clinic, said that the main goal of the event is to offer younger students a chance to pursue dance if they’re interested.
“I teach all grades — I teach lower school, middle school and high school,” Ms. Magliocco said. “Seeing kids ask me about dance — or they really enjoy our dance unit and PE — I just wanted to give them an opportunity to dance outside of school because we don’t offer it except for high school. I think it’s really important to see that the kids who want to explore it can do that.”
Ms. Magliocco has been advocating for the idea for years, she said.
“This is my ninth year coaching. So I have been actually asking for this since my second year and last year Mr. Ribbens and I got to make it come to life. So we’re going to make it an annual thing,” Ms. Magliocco said. “It’s just fun to have kids of all ages come and enjoy dancing.”
Ms. Magliocco also hopes for the clinic to potentially inspire younger students to join U-High’s Dance Team down the road, once they get to high school.
“And then possibly — like last year was our first year so we had some eighth graders who are now on the dance team,” Ms. Magliocco said. “Just to see them grow and then possibly come out for dancing in high school.”
