Coach Kari Batka of the St Charles East Dance Team talks about her new coaching staff and their tryouts process, while Downers Grove South Coach Dawn Jovic spotlights her team's resurgent season. Notes on all the dance teams standing up against injustice, updates on the first step of high school athletics reopening in Illinois, and details on the surveys we sent out!
And, we're back! Sorta. Because high school sports teams can start working out at school again, though for now it's just conditioning and strengthening. We'll tell you why this first move isn't yet very useful for dance teams. We talk about our week-long pause to reflect on racial injustice and how we can do better, and we give a special shoutout to dancers going through the disappointment of knowing that someone close to them is letting them down on this issue. Then it's time for part 2 from our convo with St Charles East DT Coach Kari Batka! She walks us through her virtual tryouts process and how her new coaching staff helped sort through 54 candidates. She then rips through a concise but amazing timeline of her coaching career, which basically parallels the history of competitive dance in Illinois! Next we chat with Downers Grove South Fillies Dance Team Coach Dawn Jovic who led her program to an excellent season even though they didn't get to state. She shares how her outstanding assistant and team alum helped build the program back up over the past few seasons, the DGS Fillies' jazz and pom specialties, and how dance teams have evolved over her career but also how some things never change...like technique fundamentals! Plus we rundown all the info we're looking for in the 8CA surveys we sent out recently.
Random Office quote: "I...declare...bankruptcy!!!"