Sioux City, Iowa - The North High School Dance Team received its highest score in history for its pom routine at the national competition recently. The team’s success was a combination of perseverance, skill, and the choreography expertise of alum Olivia King.
A 2022 graduate of North High School, Olivia’s love for dance and admiration for her former dance coaches have kept her engaged with the North High School Dance Team. Despite the physical distance between Sioux City and Ames, where Olivia attends Iowa State University majoring in business management and psychology, Olivia made frequent trips back home to help the dance team prepare for competition.
“I love coming back to see all of the faces on the team and how much the team culture has grown from year to year. Last summer, I choreographed their pom routine that they took to both state and nationals. I had so much fun with the dancers and seeing how much the routine grew throughout the season,” says Olivia, who has been dancing since she was five years old.
The process of choreographing a dance routine is anything but routine, and Olivia poured her heart into building a pom routine that highlighted the team’s strengths.
“The best part of building the routine last season was incorporating skills the team could work towards by the end of the season. Watching the routine blossom was the best part, and seeing the dancers have fun made it all worth it,” adds Olivia, who says people often don’t realize how much time the dance team invests into practice.
The North High School Dance Team practices throughout the year, showing up at 6 am five days a week to perfect their routines. Amazingly, with Olivia’s assistance, the team learned their pom routine in just one week.
“The secret ingredient to choreographing the pom routine was the dancers themselves. The passion and dedication that each dancer brought with them to practices is what made the routine so impressive,” Olivia says.
When it came to the state and national competitions, Olivia was there to support North High’s dancers, surprising the team at both competitions.
“They did not know I would be at either competition and seeing them all excited to see me was so rewarding,” adds Olivia, who watched as the team placed third at state and received their highest score at nationals for the routine she choreographed.
As Olivia looks to the future, she can’t wait for the opportunity to work with the North High School Dance Team again.
“I am excited to be choreographing their pom routine again next year. I can’t wait to see what the future holds for this team!”