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PHOTO VIA Maddie Thyren
- How long have you been dancing for?
- I’ve been dancing since I was four years old — so 14 years now — and I mainly started because it’s really the only sport that stuck with me. I did soccer, and I would just pick dandelions.
- Why did you join the Mounds View dance team?
- I kind of stopped [dancing studio] at the perfect spot. COVID came up, and that was our seventh grade year, and at that point, everything was online, and I hated dancing online because I had to dance in my room, and [there] wasn’t a lot of space. And so we had our final recital that year, and I knew then thatI kind of wanted a fresh start.My eighth grade year I joined [the Mounds View dance team].
- Have you competed on the All-State Team before?
- This is going to be my third year. My sophomore year and my junior year, I was asked [by my coach] to do kick, and this year I was asked to do jazz, which I’m super pumped about. If you don’t know what All-State is, you record a video of yourself doing a 30-second routine that gets sent to you. Then after you send in that video, it goes through a bunch of different rounds of judges. And they judge you, and then, if you make it to the next round, then you get in.
- How did you join varsity in 8th grade?
- I think [my coach Katie] just saw something in me, and so she asked me to dance for [the varsity team] for state, which is super exciting. It was definitely a little bit stressful because I had to learn two dances in a week, but not to toot my own horn, I think I kind of killed it. It was just such a great opportunity that I couldn’t reject it.
- When did your passion for dancing start?
- The first year I did competition, I was seven years old, and I had never done competition before, and the studio that I was at was super aggressive, and not aggressive in a bad way, but the kind that pushes you to the most of your limits, to be the best you can. And I really loved that.So I think, the first year, I was like…I need to compete. I just want to be in front of everyone to show off what I’ve learned.
- What are your future plans for dancing?
- I plan on trying out for the premier dance team. The University of Minnesota has two different dance teams. They have the specific U of M dance team where [it’s] super hardcore. You have to get recruited for that, and I haven’t been to any of their recruiting clinics or anything, and it’s like every single day of the week, and I kind of want a little more life in college. [The premier team] is more of a club dance team, but they still compete. So, there’s still that drive, which I like.
- What is your biggest motivation for dancing?
- I love going to practice and working so hard and then leaving and knowing what I put out at practice was worth it… When you do well, and you come off the floor, and everyone is so happy and screaming for each other, and everyone just has that specific vibe, It’s just addictive.