As we start to return to in person learning, many activities have started to begin again, including Oakdale High School’s dance team.

Like many other sports and activities in the past 18 months, the dance team has been affected by Covid-19. Many dancers on the team expressed that they are excited to return to some normalcy. The dance team had their first of many performances of the year on Friday, September 3rd at the first football game against South Hagerstown.

Every year, the dance team holds tryouts in May to any students that are interested in dance, including incoming freshmen. Tryouts are a 3 day process learning pom, hip hop, and jazz choreography. At the end of the process students are tasked with one final performance, where  judges evaluate their skill level. There is never a set number of girls, but this year there are around 20 girls.

Captain of the dance team, Senior Katie Lehman has been dancing on Oakdale’s dance team for all 4 years of high school. Before she participated in the LOUYAA (Linganore Oakdale Youth Athletic Association) program.

During the pandemic, the dance team was still able to do some activities. Lehman expressed that during lockdown they were able to maintain technique through google meet practices: “We held twice-weekly virtual practices over google meet so that we could maintain our skill set. We learned routines just for fun, and conditioned together.” 

For the 2020-2021 season, the team did not hold auditions so anyone was open to participate as long as they attended rehearsals. 

Freshman Selena Snow, while new to the dance team this year, has been dancing since the age of 3. Snow mentioned that the team is taking extra precautions to keep everyone protected: “Currently, we wear masks for the entire duration of practice as long as we are inside. However we no longer have to social distance like we did in the beginning of the season”

The poms team performs a routine consisting of kicklines, pom, jazz and hip hop choreography at every home football game halftime show. In addition to this they participate in the UDA dance camp in hopes of qualifying for their Orlando Nationals. They have qualified and attended for many years in the past, Including this year although it is undecided if they will be attending or not. 

You can watch the OHS Poms team perform every halftime show at the Oakdale High School Varsity Football home games.