A symphony of upbeat music blasts through the various speakers in the dimly lit room. A large group of girls are dancing to the beat of the music. The song fades away as the girls move into their final pose. After a few seconds, they break character and begin to clap to congratulate themselves for completing the whole song perfectly. Conversation ensues as practice comes to a close. Junior Alexzandria Groeschel grabs her bag and heads some to practice some more.

“I’ve danced competitively my entire life. Growing up I played soccer, basketball and volleyball, but I always knew dancing was what I was made to do,” said Groeschel.
When Groeschel lived by Taylor High School, she had always admired their dance team, The Pacesetters. She would dream of becoming one of them when she entered high school, but she moved Tompkins High School. Though moving was unfortunate, when she found out about the Crimson Cavalettes she automatically fell in love with them.

“My favorite thing about the Cavalettes is being a part of one big family. Our coaches, our directors all treat us like we are their own daughters. Another thing that I would consider to be my favorite part is that we never get bored,” said Groeschel.

Cavalettes do not have an off season so these girls are working unbelievably hard all year round. Now that the football season has come to an end, this talented group of girls are now learning all of their competition dances as well as cleaning some of them up. So far they have learned three out of the four dances that they are taking to contest this year. The routines and dances these girls learn come from various people.

“Throughout the year the choreographers we use varies. As we prepare for contest season, we hire professional choreographers to come in and teach. This normally means we hire four choreographers and it takes about four hours to teach one dance,” said Cavalettes’ director Rosey Fortenberry. “We learn our choreography for the four dances all on separate days.”

This year, the Cavalettes introduced 17 new members making a total of 37 Cavalettles for the 2019-2020 school year. These girls will start in June and will participate in their fundraisers as well as the summer junior dance clinic. Before starting though, they have to take master classes from outside choreographers, assist in the Cavalette competition season, complete one ensemble dance and perform in the Cavalette Spring Show.

“For the Spring Show we perform all of our contest dances plus we have six new dances that are choreographed by our officers, elected new girls on the team and the directors,” said Fortenberry.

With the Spring Show approaching, the Cavalettes have been constantly working to perfect their performances. The constant hard work and dedication that every girl puts into their dance team is incredible. Make sure to keep a look out for the Cavalettes and their upcoming stages.