North Vermilion High students route to dance at National Competition

The North Vermilion High School Dance Team will be competing in their second National Dance Team Competition this weekend in Orlando, Fla.
The squad, which consist of 13 dancers, three high school managers and two sponsors, left on a chartered bus Wednesday night for Orlando.
They are expected to arrive Thursday and begin competing on Friday and through the weekend.
The squad’s two teacher sponsors are North Vermilion Middle School teachers Vangie Davidson and Shamayne Istre.
The squad qualified for nationals by finishing first in their division at UDA camp held at UL-Lafayette this summer.
This will be their second trip to Orlando in two years. They went in 2014 for the first time and have been refining their skills. They were able to scope out the competition and learned it took a lot of work to compete against other schools at that level. Nine out of the 13 current dancers are returning from that 2014 team.
Davidson said this squad works very well together, encouraging one another and problem solving when needed so that their routines are performance-ready. They are anxious to compete and have been hard at work preparing for the next level.
“We are more prepared and the girls have more experience competing now,” said Davidson. “We have competed at the state level and did well. Placing first at camp gave us motivation to keep focused and gave us the confidence that we are moving in the right direction.”
The squad will be competing in two categories - hip hop and jazz.
In jazz, there will be 50 teams in their medium varsity division and 30 teams competing in hip hop.
Half of the teams move on to the semifinal round. Davidson said the goal for North Vermilion’s squad is to advance to the semi-final round in both competitions. Making it to finals would be outstanding.
New this year in the competition is how the schools will compete. There is a small varsity level (7-12 dancers), medium varsity (13-16 dancers) and large varsity (17 or more dancers). North Vermilion is considered medium varsity.
Davidson and Istre are no strangers at knowing what is takes to run a dance team. Istre has been sponsoring the team for over 15 years.
She has a keen eye for uniformity and knows the ins and outs of managing teenagers and schedules. Davidson joined her 4 years ago to co-sponsor and coach the squad and has set the squad in a different direction with competing and advancing to the next level. “It’s all about passion, dedication, and teamwork”, Davidson says, “we are a family, a sisterhood of dancers. The girls want to improve so it’s easy to push them to their potential.” Davidson has experience on the floor as well as behind the scenes as she has had the experience of competing in the National Dance Team Championship with her high school dance team. This year marks 20 years since she competed last as a senior for Kaplan High. It was at the same location as it is today.
Here is a list of girls who are on the squad.

SENIORS
Ajah Cox
Alli LeBlanc
Bethany Perez
Shelbi Picard

JUNIORS
Ann-Kathryn Dartez
Bailey Landry
Jordan Baudoin
Kaitlyn Theriot
Regan Kelly

SOPHOMORES
Sarah Vice
Taylor Plaisance

FRESHMAN
Gabby Perez
Katelyn Cormier

MANAGERS
Taylor Duhon
Mya Cawyer
Makenzi Williams

SPONSORS
Vangie Davidson
Shamayne Istre