She hits the floor, pulse racing, hands shaking. This is the moment she’d been waiting for, the moment the team was dreaming of. She closes her eyes. Just five seconds is an eternity. Breathe in. Breathe out. The music starts and she flies across the floor. It’s the Big Nine dance competition. It’s time to give it all they have.
That’s exactly what Albert Lea Dance Team (ALDT) did at Big Nine on Jan. 21. The team placed third in High Kick, fourth in Jazz, and third overall with Jazz and High Kick scores combined, making history for ALDT.
“We were all in shock for a second,” said senior captain Morgan Ciota.
As the shock receded, the girls screamed, jumping up and down, crying. Ciota said even as the other teams’ places were announced, ALDT kept celebrating, with both Ciota and senior captain Stacia Lebeck falling to the ground from the excitement.
“We were still so excited from getting third in [high] kick that once we got third overall we just went crazy,” Lebeck said.
Coaches Allison Ciota and Krystal Falk were excited about the placement as well. Albert Lea has never placed this well at Big Nine. Allison and Falk said their goals for the team were to have their best performances of the season and to match their placement last year—which was fourth over all—or to exceed it.
“I was thrilled at ALDT’s placement at Big 9,” Allison said. “Not only was I excited about the turnout overall, but the placements in high kick and jazz individually as well.”
Falk agreed with Allison. She also said she was incredibly excited for the team. She said both High Kick and Jazz had their cleanest performances of the season.
In preparing for Big Nine, Allison said cleaning and polishing the dances was a huge part. She said in high kick the team had to make sure all 20 dancers were paying attention to every detail. In jazz, she said the main thing was getting the jazz team to “come together with a unified style for eight dancers.”
Both coaches said the success of the team has a lot to do with the team itself. Allison said she feels like it has been one of the hardest working groups of girls to work with. Falk agreed, saying the team has been working incredibly hard all season.
“We get so much accomplished at practice,” Falk said. “They’re a great group of girls.”
Ciota and Lebeck both agreed in saying it has been a really good season, especially with the placements at Big Nine.
“We’ve impressed ourselves,” Lebeck said.
“We ended up with two strong dances,” Ciota said. “That’s what made for awesome placements at Big Nine and a successful season overall.”