After a season of hard work, SunDancers attended a contest on Sunday, Feb. 23, in Houston. The dancers left on Friday and returned on Sunday after a full weekend of team bonding, shopping, and dancing.

“My favorite part of the trip was being with my team,” Kylie Chesebro ‘20 said. “It’s so cool to be surrounded by your friends in Houston knowing how hard we all worked to be there.”

SunDancers competed against various Houston drill teams such as the Clear Lake High School Flairs. SunDancers competed their lyrical, contemporary, and jazz dances, while the line officers also entered their contemporary, lyrical, and prop, where the officers used various flower props during their piece, dances into the competition. SunDancer’s Jazz Company (J-Co) and Hype, the hip hop company, also competed with their own dances, and several of the SunDancers also competed their solos and duets as well.

“The hardest part about contest was not comparing our dances to other teams,” Chesebro said, “because we did have a different style and it was intimidating.”

Besides the dancing itself, SunDancers also enjoyed the reverie of the Houston Aquarium as well as an off-Broadway reenactment of Mamma Mia!. Additionally, the dancers perused the Galleria on Sunday, relieving themselves of the stress endured during contest day.

“I enjoyed the Galleria,” Ellen Weiman ‘20 said, “especially when [Grace Hall ‘20] and I were running through it with our Cane’s trying to get to the group.”

The full list of awards can be found below.

Solos

Ella Loper ‘20 – Third runner up in 11th grade solos

Ashley Zhang ‘20 – Second runner up in 11th grade solos

Susi Chavez ‘19 – First runner up in 12th grade solos

Officer

Sixth place in showcase elite officer

First runner up in officer contemporary

First runner up in officer lyrical

First place in officer prop

Best in class officer routines

Officer sweepstakes (a score of 90 or higher on every routine)

Small Ensembles

First runner up in J-Co

Second runner up in Hype

Overall Team

Outstanding academic achievement

First runner up in grand champions

Fifth runner up in showcase elite team

First place in team jazz

Crowd pleasers award in team jazz

First runner up in team contemporary

First runner up in team contemporary

Best in class team routines

Team sweepstakes (a score of 90 or higher on every routine)