Two Technical High School students from Clearwater were part of this year’s successful Tech Tigerettes dance team, who advanced to the Minnesota State High School League Dance Team Tournament after placing in the Central Lakes Conference, where they competed in a field of 14 schools.

 

Junior Malea Miller has been in dance since she was four and on the Tigerettes team since seventh grade, where she has competed at state competition each year. Sophomore Emma Marx has been in dance since she was two; this is her second year with the Tigerettes. 

 

Throughout the season the team practiced after school every day for two and a half hours, as well as four to six hours on Saturdays and occasional morning practices. After each competition, they would note where their weak spots were and strengthen up those areas of their routine when needed.

 

The beginning of the season was especially rough for Miller, as she’s also a member of Tech’s dive team which was just wrapping its season up. The two sports overlapped for the first couple of weeks.

 

Miller and Marx are on the high kick and jazz teams, however, Marx wasn’t able to compete in kick at sectionals due to an injury. Their jazz team placed third, earning them a place at the state competition. Their kick team tied for third, however, lost the tie breaker to Sauk Rapids-Rice and ended up placing fourth.

 

The Tigerettes were also awarded the Sportsmanship Award at the conference, and Miller received an individual honorable mention in kick.

 

Competing against eleven other schools, the jazz team performed well at the state tournament on February 15 – 16 at the Target Center, dancing to It’s All Coming Back to Me Now by Celine Dion, but unfortunately, they didn’t make it into finals. 

 

However, the team was recognized by the Minnesota Association of Dance Teams (MADT) as an Academic All-State Team. To receive this designation the cumulative grade point average of the team’s ninth through twelfth graders must be 3.3 or higher.

 

The Tigerettes’ dancers had numerous injuries this season, resulting in dancers unable to compete at some of the competitions and two having to drop out completely.

 

“We did the best we could with what we had,” said Miller. “We worked hard on our performances and had a good year.”

 

Going into the season the team hoped to make it to state but knew they had a lot to overcome to get there. Along with injuries, there were a number of young, new dancers, and both teams had a lower number of participants than most schools, with 18 in kick and only 10 in jazz.

 

The team was excited after the jazz team placed at sections, knowing their hard work had paid off and that they were going to have fun no matter how they placed.

“I was so excited to dance on the state floor because so many people are watching you,” said Miller. “You’re not stressing about placing, you’re just having fun.”

“We knew we weren’t going to place so we danced more for the fun and experience,” said Marx.

 

“They did a fabulous job, I was so proud of them,” said Coach Sue Arnold. “They worked so hard this season, and both Malea and Emma are beautiful dancers.”

The Tigerettes had some of the youngest dancers competing at state, their jazz team consists of seventh graders through eleventh graders. They are also from one of the smallest schools in the AAA Division, and compete against schools much larger than themselves whose teams consist entirely of juniors and seniors.

 

Miller and Marx plan on continuing with the Tigerettes dance team again next year.

 

The dancers will be wrapping up their season with their annual banquet on Feb. 27.