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The Frankfort Station 121516
The Frankfort Station 121516
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36 | December 15, 2016 | The frankfort station sports<br />
frankfortstation.com<br />
Competitive Dance<br />
East dancers finding their beat in Queen hit<br />
Frank Gogola<br />
Freelance Reporter<br />
Lincoln-Way East girls<br />
competitive dance gave<br />
Queen’s 1976 hit “Somebody<br />
to Love” a contemporary<br />
jazz-style reboot 40<br />
years later.<br />
East debuted its modern<br />
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performance of the song after<br />
an early mix of hip-hop<br />
and compilation songs from<br />
other schools on Dec. 11 at<br />
the Bremen Invite. It finished<br />
ninth out of 13 teams.<br />
“Picking a song, playing<br />
up on the musicality and rising<br />
to the occasion with the<br />
skill — for me, that’s how<br />
we take something old and<br />
make it new,” co-head coach<br />
Kristina Bloom said. “A routine<br />
you would have seen<br />
done to the song in the 1970s<br />
would be very much different<br />
from what you would see<br />
today and the level of ability<br />
with the girls.”<br />
Bloom and co-head coach<br />
Karina Casey had been itching<br />
for their team to perform<br />
an old-school classic after<br />
doing “In the Air” by Angela<br />
McClusky last year and<br />
a compilation of songs from<br />
2012 to 2014. They started<br />
discussing this season’s song<br />
in late January after East finished<br />
29th in the Class 3A<br />
state preliminaries.<br />
“We’ve been dying to do<br />
a retro song to keep it fresh,<br />
keep it interesting and engage<br />
a lot of different audiences<br />
and tastes,” Casey<br />
said.<br />
Musicality – or mirroring<br />
the choreography with the<br />
lyrics and notes – was a key<br />
component for Bloom and<br />
Casey in selecting “Somebody<br />
to Love.” Musicality<br />
is one of 10 categories<br />
judges score. The others<br />
are choreography, difficulty,<br />
technique, group execution/<br />
synchronization, formations/<br />
staging, transitions, spacing,<br />
showmanship and overall visual<br />
effect.<br />
“Somebody to Love" traces<br />
an unnamed person going<br />
through depression.<br />
The layered song provides<br />
opportunities for groups or<br />
an individual to do a skill or<br />
progression of moves that<br />
matches a musical component.<br />
Flowing lyrics sung by<br />
Members of the Lincoln-Way East competitive dance team perform “Somebody to Love” by<br />
Queen Dec. 11 during the Bremen Invite. photos by bob Klein/22nd Century Media<br />
The team wore red instead of its school colors to better<br />
match the themes of the song.<br />
Freddie Mercury, a gospelchoir<br />
background sound,<br />
subtle piano keys, a guitar<br />
solo and a rising drumbeat<br />
toward the end are a few of<br />
the musical components to<br />
punctuate.<br />
“With a piece of music<br />
like this with all of that musicality,<br />
especially with actual<br />
instruments versus some<br />
of the newer songs you hear,<br />
which are a little bit more<br />
electronically produced,<br />
there’s a lot of opportunity<br />
there,” Bloom said. “Ultimately,<br />
what we’re trying to<br />
do is bring the song to life<br />
through the choreography<br />
and with the dancers.”<br />
In the past, East has remained<br />
near its school color<br />
scheme with blue and white,<br />
blue and black, and solid<br />
black uniforms. This year’s<br />
red uniforms were a change<br />
because of how they complement<br />
the song.<br />
“We felt with the idea of<br />
love (and it) being a very<br />
powerful song, a very emotional<br />
song, we felt that red<br />
stood out,” Casey said.<br />
East will focus on improving<br />
its routine before its next<br />
competition on Jan. 8. Spacing<br />
and lifts were two areas<br />
Casey saw for improvement<br />
at the Dec. 11 invite. In November,<br />
the team pulled<br />
out a competition because<br />
it didn’t feel ready with its<br />
choreography.<br />
East’s rosters includes 10<br />
dancers with varsity experience.<br />
Returners who competed<br />
for East last season include<br />
Kara Bouck, Riley Clarey,<br />
Catie O’Connor, Mia Pranckus,<br />
Claire Roth and Maggie<br />
Scott. Among transfers from<br />
North are Julia Bennett, Angelina<br />
Jardine, Julia Legno<br />
and Michelle Pretto.<br />
But there are also are 10<br />
dancers who are new to the<br />
varsity level. Leah Beran,<br />
Alyssa Bernal, Ashley Bullock,<br />
Alexa Mikrut, Brooke<br />
Mittler, Stephanie Nolasco<br />
and Kara Rogien were on the<br />
junior varsity or freshman<br />
teams last season. Chloe<br />
Gunkel, Olivia Nilsson and<br />
Shelby Stajszczak are freshmen.<br />
“One thing that we really<br />
pride ourselves on with our<br />
team is that the girls take<br />
ownership of the routine,”<br />
Casey said. “We’re asking<br />
for their feedback and their<br />
thoughts in terms of creative<br />
direction for our routine<br />
as we progress through<br />
the season.”<br />
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