Coach Jason Jones set lofty goals for this dance season, including a variation in dance styles, a larger focus on team bonding and more advanced techniques.
According to Jones, the team danced many styles, from hip-hop and jazz to lyrical and modern, to align with the values of the team, and to keep dancers from staying in one style.
“A part of being a part of being on this team is understanding that we’re not just going to stick to one style,” Jones said. “You’re going to have to be adaptable. I don’t want the team to get stuck in one style.”
Jones said one of his goals for the dance team was to continue to attend the Universal Dance Association (UDA) camp during the summer. The UDA camp was hosted in Memphis, Tennessee, and dancers learned from professional and college dancers. Jones said it prepared the team for the next season.
“Our summer UDA camp is a pressure cooker,” Jones said. “But it really prepares the team to be able to handle the pressures of doing dances and coming up with choreography and being able to retain it very quickly.”
For some of the dancers, like senior Cornice Penny and senior and stage season captain Shelby Cottrell, UDA was a wonderful opportunity to bond with their teammates.
“It was really intense,” Penny said. “We had to work as a team and look out for each other the whole time.”
Cottrell said UDA was an emotional experience.
“There’s a lot of emotion that comes with living together for four or five days,” Cottrell said. “And a lot of crying.”
Other members of the team had fond memories of trying out for All-American, an honor given by organizations like the USA to dancers who showed great technical skill and showmanship. Junior and basketball season captain Jasic Helvey said it was one of her favorite dance memories, despite the struggles the team faced.
“It was terrifying,” Helvey said. “None of us made it, but it was like trauma bonding in a way. We all did well considering everything. Doing something new with the girls was fun.”

Jessica Philips, a sophomore and the team’s all-year captain, said one of her favorite memories was the support her team showed her after All-American.
“My favorite part was definitely not flunking All-American, but growing after,” Philips said. “I cried really hard, and all my teammates came to support me.”
Jones believed that the team’s greatest strength was their desire to learn and improve.
“They’re hungry,” Jones said. “They’re always ready to learn and work hard. You can see that in their performances. Their choreography is getting cleaner and crisper.”

Despite the team’s improvement and bonding, Jones still had more goals for the team, which included collaborating with T-High dance team alumni, in order to display the legacy of Topeka High dance.
“Topeka High is definitely a school steeped in traditions, in legacy,” Jones said. “There are a lot of individuals in this community who were a part of the Topeka High dancing legacy. And over time, I definitely look forward to being able to reach back and pull that to the present and bring some of those people out of the woodworks.”
Jones also hoped to continue having a stage season for the team, where they performed on stage for the student-run talent show last year. Jones said it helped dancers learn new skills for a new audience and scenery.
“When we’re on the stage, we really have to get into some advanced techniques and different styles of dance and so on and so forth, and honestly, a different audience,” Jones said. “I like being able to move to different audiences. I kept saying: You’re an entertainer. You have to be able to do just as well as entertaining a theater audience or a stage season audience as you do a football or field season audience.”

Not only was the stage season an opportunity for the dancer’s improvement, it allowed Jones to go back to his theatre roots.
“[Working on the talent show performance] was a fun experience for me,” Jones said. It took me back to my roots of dancing on the stage. The field and the court stuff is newer for me, but when we got to the stage, I was able to get back to some of my musical theater roots and do things that were a little closer to home.”
The dance team is always recruiting for next season, which is the basketball season, according to Jones. Anyone interested in joining the dance team can email Jones at [email protected].