By Cris Greer
WKTV Managing Editor
After overcoming some obstacles this season, the East Kentwood varsity dance team rose to the top with many awards and honors.
Soon before their national championships in February in Orlando, the students learned their flight was overbooked and it was time for Plan B. With no other options, the team drove 18 hours to Florida to make it just in time for the semifinals and compete with the nation’s best teams in the 2022 Dance Team Union National Championship.
Both the jazz and hip hop teams reached the finals, and earned 15th and fourth place, respectively.
“It was a great feeling to be recognized among the best teams in the country,” said EK coach Kat Albertson, who coached the Falcons for four years and is now pursuing coaching at the collegiate level. “Luckily, this was the most hard-working and determined group of student-athletes I’ve ever had the privilege of coaching. They were all so eager to prove to themselves, and to their school, that not only is the dance team at East Kentwood one of the best in Michigan, but also that dance team is a sport.
“We had incredible success this past year due to the team’s hard work, dedication and the positive team culture we built together. We were undefeated in hip hop this year, won the grand champion award at every local competition (registered the highest scoring dance in the entire competition), and won two regional championships for the first time in program history.”
Albertson said her team captain, junior Saniya Harvey, is an “exceptional dancer and leader.”
Check out the dance team’s performance at the national championship by clicking here.
“We lost five incredible seniors in 2021 and only had five returning members for the new year,” continued Albertson, whose assistant coach was EK dance alum Brooklyn Smithers, a freshman at GVSU. “We were uncertain if we’d be able to have ample time to create a family-like bond with so many new members, get our technique where it needed to be, and to reach the level of excellence that our past teams had been able to do.
“It’s taken a really long time for us to get the recognition that we deserve, and I think that has truly been the most fulfilling thing that we’ve seen come out of this year.”
