Well, we survived yet another snowy and long Saturday of dance team invitationals across the state. This past weekend's biggest events were are Apple Valley and Chaska High Schools, with a lot of new stories developing. I was at the Apple Valley invitational this weekend and got to see 100 or so teams really dance up a storm.
Goings on from Apple Valley:
In class A and AA, many of the teams were having their first performance or competition. Teams from as far away as St. Charles (east of Rochester) and Crosby (Mille Lacs area) made the trek. Cannon Falls made their kick debut for the year and certainly brought their kicks from state last year with them. They'll be looking for a trip to state again as usual at this rate. Faribault also made their first AA appearance since being moved down and while there were a few first time jitters showing, they brought some of their usually solid and well conditioned dancing to the AA division. Austin was another AA kick highlight - I felt like they were really trying something new for them and didn't just do something tried and true in content. Not a bad idea since section 1AA is the stiffest competition in the state these days.
AAA had a huge line up as usual for the AV invite, with Brainerd taking the kick contest with their "girls" theme dance and St. Cloud Tech winning the jazz. Brainerd and Tech just met on Thursday night for a conference meet in kick with the placements being reversed, so the Kixters must be thrilled to have grabbed it back 2 days later. Apple Valley notably fell to 4th, but after checking the scores, they'd had a 3 pt per judge deduction (i'm not sure from what) that cost them a placement over Lakeville North. Not a fun way to slip down a place at your home school.
In jazz, Tech has some of the best jazz costumes i've seen so far this year - very pretty for their "Stairway to Heaven" dance. One thing I noticed from the jazz division is that its a good year to stay out of section 4AAA jazz. There are some serious powers going on there. Brainerd, Tech, Blaine, Andover, and Duluth East all are pushing hard and then there were still strong showings from Anoka and Elk River. There will be some quality dances left out of state from that section for sure.
The Apple Valley deductions came from JV girls sharing seats while watching varsity perform. However, I was told that before deductions, Apple Valley would have placed first? Is this not true then?
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