The Liberty Dance Team has been a club at Liberty since 2017. From the challenges of getting brand new coaches this school year to getting warmed up to compete on the National Championship floors, the Liberty Dance Team has never failed to show up and show out with their performances.
The Liberty Dance Team is an all-year-round club, meaning there is no specific end except for a two-week break between the National Competition and next season’s tryouts. The team officially starts its practices in June and continues until the beginning of February, when they show off their performances at nationals.
The Liberty Dance Team attends six competitions each year, some at local schools and some require them to travel.
This year, the team attended two local competitions at West High School and Linn-Mar High School, then attended their state competition in Des Moines shortly after one of their regional competitions in Newton. The team then traveled farther for their second regional competition, going to Omaha. Currently, the team finished its season at the Universal Dance Association (UDA) National Championship in Orlando.
“These girls are some of the hardest workers I know. This season has been far from easy, with a whole new coaching staff and mid-season adjustments to our team, yet they showed up to practice every day with their goals in mind, ready to do whatever it took to get them there,” states Delaney Hannan, the Liberty Varsity Dance Team head coach. “If I were to tell those girls to jump, they would ask how high. Whether it’s an early morning or late night, these girls know what it took to reach their goals.”
The Liberty Varsity Dance Team
The Liberty Varsity Dance Team has been busy this year, with performances at football games and varsity basketball halftimes, and that’s just a small portion of what they do to show their school spirit. The dance team practices at least four times a week for 2.5-3 hours, adding more practice days and extending hours approaching their bigger competitions.
Hannan talks about how she gives her team corrections to make them better dancers.
“A lot of times at practice, I’ll video them and then have them watch the video because it can be a lot if I just keep talking at them. I try to compliment them whenever possible and communicate overall within the team on how we can make something better,” Hannan expressed.
The team’s ultimate goal is to perform well at the National Championship. They gave their all on the nationals floor, giving them one of the highest school rankings Liberty has ever seen.
The team finished in 13th place in the semi-final round for their jazz routine and advanced to the final round of competition for their pom routine.
The team brought home a fifth-place spot in Division II Pom, which broke the school record for the Liberty Dance Team at the UDA National Competition.
The Liberty Junior Varsity Dance Team
The Liberty Junior Varsity (JV) Dance Team has stayed productive this year, continuing to dance at the varsity football games and performing halftime dances at the junior varsity girls and boys basketball games in preparation for the National Competition.
The JV team had set goals at the beginning of their season and made sure to stay positive throughout the season. Stormy Waldrep, The Liberty JV Dance Team Head Coach, explains what the team has done this season and how she continues to show her love for the team.
“The girls have had a great season so far, placing in the top three for at least one dance [at] every competition, so going into Nationals, I [was] confident they would put their best foot forward on that floor. The girls had beaten one of the hardest teams to beat at UDA regionals, and it left the whole team hopeful, as well as us coaches, that they would do the best that they could, and that’s all that mattered to us,” Waldrep explained.
The team practices before school when it’s close to an important competition, and after school four times a week, adding extra hours and days towards their journey to the National Competition, much like the varsity team.
The Liberty JV Dance Team finished in seventh place in the Jazz Semi-finals round, and sixth place in the Pom Semi-finals round.
