The dance studio at Antioch Community High School in Illinois was the site of a major facilities upgrade this summer and last month, reports Ava Yeager in the school’s student newspaper.
Antioch Community High School (school website)The studio used to have linoleum floors, which were full of dents and hard to dance on, she reported. The floors are now cleaner and safer.
“The new floors are raised, so it’s better for impact when you land jumps,” she quoted one junior dancer as saying.
The mirrors are also new. “We can actually see ourselves in the mirrors now because the old ones looked like funhouse mirrors,” another dancer was quoted as saying.
Just south of Antioch, the homecoming festivities at Downers Grove South High School featured a performance by the acclaimed Future Legacies dance team, which placed fifth last year in the junior division at the World of Dance finals in Los Angeles.
Unlike the smooth floors in the new dance studio at Antioch, the dancers here performed on the artificial turf of the school’s football field. The group, which includes dancers from several area schools, five from Downers Grove South, had never performed a routine on artificial turf.
Despite a few errors, the dance team, which hails from the nearby DLD Dance Center, executed their hip-hop routine to a mashup of rap and pop songs. Students cheered loudly, Mia Cassin reported in the school’s student newspaper.
“I am proud of this team and the work that they put in each and every day to perfect their craft and hone their skills,” she quoted Anthony Wilder, the group’s coach, as saying. “The drive that they have to push themselves and to always set higher goals is very inspiring.”
