Eastview Dancers Head to National Miss Dance Team Competition

Last year, the High School Lightning dance team won the state high-kick title, and placed third in the state jazz competition.

But in addition to their team successes, each year for the past 10 years, about 50 girls from Eastview and other Minnesota school dance teams have gotten a chance to represent their schools as soloists in the Miss Dance Team Minnesota competition.

Eastview sophomore Olivia Corcoran, freshman Mikayla DeNicola and junior Mikayla Larson will travel to the national Miss Dance Drill Team USA competition in California in March as a result of their performances in the Minnesota competition. Sophomore Ellen Kenney also participated in the Minnesota competition at the end of October.

Lightning dance team coach Jenny Raiche is the competition's director, and began the Eastview-hosted competition 10 years ago; the Miss Dance Team Minnesota title is akin to the Mr. and Ms. athletics awards for other sports, she said.

"This is kind of the opportunity for dancers to do that same sort of thing," Raiche said.

There are two divisions in the Miss Dance Team Minnesota competition. The Miss division, for juniors and seniors, consists of a solo dance routine, display of technical skill and interview; the dancer who wins this division is Miss Dance Team Minnesota.

Raiche said that for the past three years, the dancer named Miss Dance Team Minnesota has also won the national title.

Eastview's dancers all competed in the second division, called Best of Minnesota, which is for ninth through 11th graders and requires a solo dance performance only.

DeNicola won the Best of Minnesota division this year.

Kenney said the competition is an opportunity for individual dancers to see how they do outside the team setting.

"It's totally different than dance team," Larson said. The girls said they had fun at the Minnesota level and are excited for nationals, for which they'll practice with Raiche until March.

At the national competition, the girls will do solo routines, and then will do a group routine as Team Minnesota, Raiche said.

Miss Drill Dance Team USA is scheduled for March 22-24 in Irvine, CA.